FADER NYFW, Spring 2014
These days, fashion as a spectator sport is as much about the models on the runway as it is the guests in the front row, and that means you better come correct with your look when you're rolling up to an event. But NYFW is also an endurance game: with almost too many shows to count on the schedule, you better feel just as good as you look. Here, the FADER team tells us what they can't live without during this season's fashion week.
Alex Frank
So, I've been telling you that a good backpack is my number one essential for many, many years, but season after season, it never ceases to be the most important part of my wardrobe—the right bag can be keep your runway schedule, your source of energy (Sour Patch Kids, or if you're more of an adult than me, almonds), your reading material for long slogs on the subway between shows, a jacket to take you from hot days to breezy nights and—if you pick the right one—be handsome enough to give your look a boost. Peters Mountain Works are currently making my favorite bags on the planet, and this special edition that they did only for stores in Japan is ideal: big enough for everything I need, shiny and sleek enough to keep me looking space age cool.
Mobolaji Dawodu
I like Levi's 501 jean because they're classic. They have a classic fit, sitting right at the waist. I don’t like low rise jeans – they make me feel like my pants are falling off. Initially these jeans were a deep indigo and it took me three years to make them look this sandy, faded blue. So they can’t be replicated. I take them everywhere, on every single trip. They’ve traveled all over the world. I get them fixed at the dry cleaners, patched up numerous times when they get busted. The current hole in the knee happened this year; it adds character so it can stay. My 501s are perfect for NYFW because they feel like the my skin on my legs– easy and effortless. What can I say, I love these jeans– they're classic and I’m an all-round classic guy.
Deidre Dyer
The longer that I've worked in the fashion industry, the more at ease I've become in my dress. I've settled into uniforms, variations on a handful of themes, that make sleeping in later possible and, ultimately, feels truer to my innate sense of style. While most editors and writers are running around in three-piece suits or teetering on sky high heels, I opted this NYFW to cop a pair of platforms too– Converse Chuck Taylor Platforms that is. After much EBay searching, I found a pair of these sold out sneaks, quickly had them expressed shipped, timed to arrive at the commencement of fashion week. While these seem like an unlikely purchase for a week as fancy as this one, they're just the right fit for me. I say let the people that write about suits and Manolo's wear them. I'm thankful that I get to cover runway shows that feature Lil B's face plastered on basketball ball shorts, designers that look to Trinity from The Matrix for inspiration. I'm super stoked that there's a place in this crazy commercialized week for ppl that are doing their own thing. While running around town attending shows in this look– vintage football jersey, skater skirt along with my Chuck Taylors Platform, a fashion PR woman called me Sporty Spice. I gagged and I knew that opting for these fun statement making kicks was the right move for this NYFW.