Day 39: Thursday, February 21, 2011

Before the Krizia fashion Show

Day two of fashion week in Milan! Caitlin, Emily, and I got all dolled up then headed for the city to see which fashion shows we could get into today. We started with the Krizia fashion show at 2pm. We actually hadn't heard of the designer, but after researching we discovered that she is actually a well-known Italian designer that has been infamous in Europe since the 1950s. When we got there, there were dozens of people surrounding the doors, with security men standing guard. We quickly realized we weren't getting in the front door, so we decided to scope out other options. We found another door off to the side that looked like it led to the same building, so we entered. Two other girls had walked in this entrance before us and lucky for us, they caught the brunt of the security. As soon as they walked in, the man from behind the desk immediately stopped them and started yelling at them in Italian. We took this as our cue to proceed. I stealthy slipped passed them as they were conversing and made my way to the next room. And amazingly enough, the next room was the venue for the show. The room was set up just like the Alberta Ferretti show; there were rows and rows of seats, a perfectly lit up run way, and a tree of photographers posted up in front of the room. Once we entered the showroom, we kept walking right through it as if we knew exactly where we were going. We walked up the stairs and snagged front row balcony seats. We decided that besides the obvious front row seats, the balcony seats were the best seats in the house. The seats on the ground weren't escalated very much, so unless you were in the very front, you can't necessarily see very well. So needless to say, we were stoked with our seats. Once again, we were in the doors about 30 minutes before they were actually letting people in, so we decided to keep the picture snapping to a minimum in an effort to not draw attention towards ourselves. Once the doors opened, they were popping champagne at the door and giving it away to the guests that entered. It filled up very quickly, there wasn't an empty set to be had. About one minute before the show started, the stage crew took the cover off the runway. There is always a cover on the runway before the show; they don't want any dirt, footprints, or dust to contaminate the runway! Immediately after taking it off, an oblivious photographer comes from backstage and clumsily walks across the perfectly polished runway, leaving white, dusty footprints across the entire stage. Everyone started booing and yelling at him! I felt kind of bad :( Once the show started, it was about 15 minutes of tall, skinny, blondes all with platinum pixie strutting down the runway. I recorded the show again, here's the link:

Krizia Fall/Winter 2011 Fashion Show

After the show, we went down to the runway to snap a few pictures! Right when I got there, two girls asked me to take their picture. I had a lot going on; I had my camera, my bloggie, my purse, and my cell phone all in my hands, but stupidly, I decided to take her camera too. And the second she let go of it, it crashed to the floor because I had no grip on it whatsoever. It was clearly my fault, so I leaned down and picked it up right away. However, something definitely broke when it hit the floor, because there was a message flashing across the screen (in Italian of course) and it wouldn't let me take any pictures. At first I pretended to take a picture, but the girl definitely called me out..."there was no flash, it didn't take," she said. So, I had no choice but to confront her and show her that it wasn't working. It was really, really awkward. I made Caitlin and Emily abort mission take-pictures-on-runway and bail ship immediately. I just wanted to get out of there before she hunted me down for 100E or something! I felt terrible!!!

After Krizia, it was off to Prada. However, we didn't research how to get from this show to the Prada, so we were in a bit of a bind. We exited the building and looked for any clues whatsoever. We saw a couple buses waiting outside the venue...so I decided to see what the deal was. The driver told me that the busses were going to the Prada fashion show, but that they were strictly for the Press. After a quick begging session, we were on the Press bus on the way to the Prada fashion show :)

On the press bus from the Krizia show to Prada

Some diva at the Prada Show

We definitely weren't as lucky with getting into this show as we were with the last one. The security was insanely tight. We realized right away that we weren't going to be able to get in the front door. There were security guards standing shoulder to shoulder in the entrance way, letting only one person in at a time, after a close examination of their invitation. We walked around to the side where all the photographers were waiting to enter. We tried to blend in with them for a second, then realized it was way too obvious. In fact one of the photographers even turned around and said, "next time you want to blend in with the photographers, you might want to try a different outfit." They were all wearing jeans and sneakers, and we were wearing skirts, dresses, high heels, and blazers. We didn't 

exactly fit the part. So, we met up with the other girls and settled for standing outside and just being part of the chaotic environment. I gazed at outfits and enviously watched the lucky people who got to enter for about 30 minutes, then decided to head back. As we were walking back to the tram, a large steel door opened as a car was pulling out. All 10 of us immediately walked in, but were instantly stopped by security. It is definitely harder to be discrete when you are traveling with so many people. I am still convinced that if it just been a few of us, we would have been able to sneak past security when that door opened!