One question I really dislike during the fashion month is “What is your favourite fashion week to attend?”. The thing is you see, being a very indecisive person I struggle even when choosing between roses and peonies in the flower shop, not to mention how hard it is to choose between fashion weeks, when all of them are really different. At first I did try and answer to this question, but season in and out answers would change. “New York, no, no, Milan I mean, but then also Paris for its beauty, but also London, you see London is like a home game”, I would often add. Eventually I stopped fighting it and now I just embrace all four of them and just smile to this question adding that every single one of them has something beautiful about it and I can’t even compare them.
I am gonna tell you a little bit about all of them in the next few paragraphs, their good an bad sides. New York is the one that is always hardest to plan. Not only that it’s the furthest one, but sometimes if you don’t plan in advance hotels can be fully booked, and you will be last minute accommodation hunting. Tickets are not crazy expensive from London to New York, so if a brand is not sponsoring then you don’t want a plane ticket to waste. I had really great experiences in New York. I already did New York five times and have so many contacts there which is why I used to think its my favourite for a while. I get so many show tickets in New York that I often feel like I have to clone myself to do it all. Not to mention content creation, I want to shoot at the Brooklyn bridge at the sunrise, I want to go to DUMBO, do videos, but there is never enough time. Good thing about New York is that there aren’t too many European bloggers over there. Now don’t get me wrong, its just that I really like meeting more US bloggers, but also having a really small and handpicked European crowd over there. I always see same people from Europe in New York and that is just fabulous, because the crowd is not too huge so that I would miss them. Over the five seasons I learned that I don’t have to attend every show in New York, just the ones I really like, and there aren’t too many huge designers like for example in Milan, but I will get to that later.
London is always a little bit whatever to me. Maybe because its a home game, maybe because there aren’t that many good blogger events in London or maybe because I feel that I only like few designers that show in London. Even though there aren’t that many amazing shows in London and it only lasts for five days, I feel like London is always so stressful. I don’t get any rest after 8 nights in New York, I lose a night in the time difference when I come back and immediately I have a lot of meetings, fittings, shows, presentations, projects, shootings and often ask myself why did I take so much on. Another thing with London is that weather sucks no matter if its February or September it will rain one day, and this means traffic jam times two, horrible hairstyle and waiting forever to get that Uber. But hey, I love London because I feel like its home, I know so many people and sometimes it feels like a school reunion, seeing all the UK bloggers, all the PRs I see through out of years, and the designers I work with and support. London is also pretty creative and often means great parties at night with my friends who are bloggers and magazine editors.
Then comes Milan. Milan gives me excitement, thrill, it pushes me so much because I only did Milan for three seasons now. The amount of fabulous brands there can only compare to Paris, but even that only slightly, as I feel like I prefer brands showing in Milan to Paris. Another great thing about Milan is that they LOVE bloggers, its one city where they most appreciate what bloggers do, how influential we are and everyone seems a little bit friendlier. I am still working on my contacts in Milan because I feel that there are so many brands and never enough time to sit down have a coffee or lunch with them all. This is the city where I see Jimmy Choo, Zanotti, Cavalli, MSGM, Moschino, Armani, Philipp Plein, the city where I have friends, where I love the fashion as it fits my style the most. Some of my all time favourite bloggers and good friends are from Milan and its always great to catch up with them. This city inspires me most out of all of them and gives me energy to do the Paris as well.
Paris is a serious game. You see all the buyers save their money for Paris. That is why some of international and London designers present there. Buyers would spend wisely in New York, London and Milan but then go all out in Paris where some of the most known French and international designers will be presenting. Paris is also very stressful for me, as traffic is ridiculous, people don’t speak English, I don’t speak French, which seems to be the biggest issue when my brand new iPhone died in the middle of the fully scheduled week. Paparazzi are everywhere, celebrities on every corner, people are immaculately dressed and Paris always reminds me how huge this industry is, how much I have to work more to get my place under the sun in the fashion world. Of course I am grateful that I am able to attend these amazing shows, places, parties and have meetings with some of the worlds most prestigious brands, but I always remember that I shouldn’t get carried away, because there will always be someone better, smarter, more successful and that only motivates me to work more.
You might think “Wait, fashion weeks are glamorous on TV and in our heads but actually seem like a lot of work”, and that is true. Just imagine that behind every fashion show that lasts 8-10 minutes is 6 months of hard work. However that feeling when you come to an event, and you know you worked so hard to get a seat at that dinner hosted by a brand you loved since your childhood. When you know in your head that you are just an ordinary girl from northern city in Serbia that studied something completely different to most of the people at the table, yet you are one of the 10 bloggers from around the world that they invited it feels priceless. Its not about vanity or ego anymore, its about realising your super powers and the super power I am talking about is work. You realised that no one gave this to you. That your parents are NOT in the fashion industry, that you never had as much as one contact to make it here, but you just blogged and blogged until you earned your place at that dinner. You also hear about events that you weren’t invited to, and personally I see many bloggers that get very upset because they didn’t get invited, but me, just how I am happy about every invitation I worked hard for, i know I will work hard for more seasons to come, until one by one I earn my place at other events too. I wouldn’t want to have it all, because then, what would I work for in the years to come?
Who wears better bag, who has nicer outfit or a better seat at the show? It doesn’t really matter. What matters is what YOU make out of it, that you stay true to yourself, that you work hard for your dreams and that you can understand why some other people have more than you. Maybe they deserve it, maybe they worked for it, grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence, what matters is that you grow your own without comparing too much. I hope that this post inspired you a little bit because it was the honest opinion on everything that happened around the fashion capitals of the world. We don’t save lives for sure, but there is a lot of circus happening which I can’t explain, a lot of adrenaline and excitement. But even when I work for 28 days without a break I still wouldn’t change this profession for anything in the world, it gives me wings and I am so grateful for everything I learned and experiences so far.
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Jedno pitanje koje zaista ne volim u toku modnog meseca jeste “Koja od cetiri nedelje mode ti je omiljena?. Stvar je u tome sto sam po prirodi osoba koja tesko donosi odluke, ili ih sasecem odmah ili se razmisljam danima, nekada ne mogu da se odlucim izmedju ruza i bozura, da ne spominjem kako je tesko odluciti se izmedju cetiri potpuno razlicite nedelje mode. U pocetku sam pokusavala da odgovorim na ova pitanja i shvatila sam da bi se odgovor menjao iz sezone u sezonu. “Njujork, ne,ne Milano, ali isto tako Pariz zbog njegove lepote, ali ipak i London, London je kao igra na domacem terenu”, cesto bih dodavala. Konacno sam prestala da dajem ovakve odogovre, samo bih se nasmesila i rekla da svaki od njih ima nesto prelepo te da ih zaista ne mogu porediti.
Reci cu vam vise o svakoj nedelji mode pojedinacno, pozitivne i negativne strane svakog, kako biste shvatili kako to sve izgleda. Njujork je onaj koji mi najteze pada da isplaniram. Ne samo sto je Njujork daleko pa ne mogu biti spontana i opustena po pitanju smestaja, te ukoliko ne planirate na vreme hoteli mogu biti puni, i onda ste pod stresom sto jurite smestaj u poslednjem trenutku. Karte nisu preskupe kada idete iz Londona za Njujork, ali su dovoljno skupe da ne zelite da propadnu u slucaju da vam se planovi promene. Ja sam zaista imala neverovatna iskustva u Njujorku. Posetila sma ga vec 5 puta povodom nedelje mode i sakupila neverovatno mnogo kontakata zbog cega sam dugo mislila da je bas ovo moj omiljeni modni grad. U Njujorku dobijem i najvise pozivnica, toliko da cesto mislim kako treba da se kloniram u nekoliko Tamara, a na neke revije saljem i pomocnika koga imam sa sobom. Da ne spominjem koliko mi je tesko kada nemam dovoljno vremena da stvaram sadrzaj za blog, jer je Njujork grad u kom zelim da slikam toliko toga, Bruklinski most u zoru, prelepe parkove u DUMBO delu grada, da snimam videe, ali vremena nikad dosta. Dobra stvar u Njujorku je sto nema previse Evropskih blogera. Nemojte me shvatiti pogresno nemam nista protiv Evropskih blogera, ali ako niste zaista ozbiljni u vezi ovoga cime se bavite necete putovati 5000 kilometara cisto da bi se zabavili. Tamo uvek upoznam dosta US blogera i druzim se sa sakom mojih prijatelja iz Evrope, koje uvek srecem na istim revijama i zabavama iz sezone u sezonu. Kada odem u Njujork nikada ne mogu biti sama, pa ni na jednom modnom desavanju, jer uvek sretnem neke mnogo drage ljude koje dugo nisam videla.U 5 sezona u Njujorku shvatila sam da ne moram posetiti svaku reviju, vec da je bitno napraviti selekciju, jer u Njujorku nema toliko puno fenomenalnih dizajnera kao na primer u Milanu, ali o tome cu vam pricati u jednom od pasusa koji slede.
London je po mom misljenju uvek nekako prosecan. Mozda zato sto sam u gradu u kom provodim najveci deo godine, mozda zato sto nema mnogo dogadjaja namenjenih za blogere, ali nekako imam osecaj da nema mnogo dizajnera u Londonu koje ja bas obozavam, a i cela “nedelja” mode traje samo 5 dana. Razlog zbog kojeg mi je London takodje prilicno stresan jeste taj sto nakon 8 dana i noci u Njujorku nemam nikakvu pauzu, izgubim noc u povratku zbog razlike u vremenu i odmah krecem u akciju. Sastanci, odeca, revije, prezentacije, projekti, slikanja, cesto se upitam zasto sam toliko stvari natrpala u raspored sto bitnih sto nebitnih. Jos jedna stvar u Londonu je ta sto je vreme uvek nikakvo, nije hladno ali kisa padne uvek prvi ili drugi dan, bez obzira da li je septembar ili februar, saobracaj postane jos gori, moja kosa ne lici ni na sta a Uber-u treba 15 minuta da dodje do vas. Ali hej, volim London jer se osecam kao kod kuce, znam mnogo ljudi, i nekada se osecam kao da imam godisnjicu mature ili neceg slicnog jer vidim mnogo prijatelja koje nekada ne stignem da vidim tokom godine. London je takodje prilicno kreativan a ja cesto zavrsim uvece u nekom pabu ili baru sa prijateljima urednicima casopisa i blogerima sa kojima se smejem i zabavljam do kasno u noc.
Potom je na redu Milano. Milano mi daje neki polet, uzbudjenje, gura me jer je sve nekako novo s obzirom da sam Milansku nedelju mode pohadjala samo tri puta. Kolicina sjajnih dizajnera se moze porediti samo sa Parizom, ali i to cak u nekoj meri jer ja licno preferiram Milanske dizajnere od onih u Parizu. Jos jedna odlicna stvar u Milanu je to sto vole blogere, to je grad u kom smo najcenjeniji, gde znaju sta znaci uticaj i to se oseti. I dalje radim na skupljanju kontakata u Milanu, jer mislim da ima previse brendova, te ne stignem uvek sa svima da sednem na sastanak, kafu, rucak. Ovo je grad u kome se radujem prezentacijama i revijama brendova kao sto su Jimmy Choo, Zanotti, Cavalli, MSGM, Moschino, Armani, Philipp Plein, grad gde imam prijatelje, gde obozavam modu i grad koji najvise odgovara mom licnom stilu. Neki od mojih omiljenih blogera i prijatelja su iz Milana i uvek se radujem ponovnom susretu sanjima. Ovaj grad me inspirise najvise od svih i daje mi energiju da izguram i Pariz.
Pariz je ozbiljna igra. Tamo mozete videti najozbiljnije kupce takozvane “bajere” koji rade za ozbiljne robne kuce kao sto su Harrods, Selfridges, Net-a-Porter i oni dolaze sa poslom da kupe sve sto ce se prodavati na njihovim sajtovima ili robnim kucama sledece sezone. Oni cuvaju sve pare za Pariz i dok mudro trose u Njujorku, Londonu i Milanu u Parizu idu do maksimuma. To je jedan od razloga zasto je Pariz toliko vazna karika u mesecu mode, te zasto najveci broj internacionalnih dizajnera odluci da prezentuje svoje kolekcije u prestonici Francuske. Pariz je takodje prilicno stresan za mene, jer je saobracaj najgori u ovom gradu, ljudi ne govore engleski a ja ne govorim francuski. Ovo sam najgore osetila na svojoj kozi kada mi je nov iPhone crkao u sred jednog od najbitnijih dana, te sam morala da organizujem novi u roku od 15minuta. Paparaci su na svakom cosku, sve zvezde su u Parizu, ljudi su neverovatno obuceni, a ovaj grad me uvek podseti kolika je zapravo industrija i koliko jos moram da radim da zaradim svoje mesto pod suncem modne industrije.Naravno da sam zahvalna sto mogu da prisustvujem na mnogim zabavama i revijama najprestiznijih brendova u Parizu, ali se podsetim da u svakoj industriji ima neko ko ce biti bolji, uspesniji, pameniji, stojim cvrsto nogama na zemlji i to me tera da jos vise radim.
Mozda cete pomisliti “Cekaj, nedelje mode na TV-u cesto izgledaju kao san a ti ih predstavljas kao mnogo posla” ali samo zamislite da iza svake revije od nekih 8-10 minuta stoji pola godine rada. Ipak neverovatan je osecaj kada stignete na dogadjaj ili znate da ste radili mnogo kako biste zaradili to mesto za stolom, te da je neko iz brenda koji volite od detinjstva kaligrafskim pismom ispisao vase ime i postavio ga ispred vaseg tanjira.Posto sam ja obicna devojka koja je odrasla u jednom severnom gradu Srbije, koja je studirala nesto sasvim drugo od svih ljudi za stolom,bude mi neverovatno da sam bas ja pozvana i jedna od 10 blogerki iz celog sveta koja je na tom eventu. Vise se ne radi o narcisizmu ili egu, radi se o shvatanju da jedina carobna moc koja vam je potrebna jeste rad. Shvatam da mi ovo niko nije poklonio, da moji roditelji nemaju veze sa modnom industrijom i da nisam imala ni jedan jedini kontakt u modnoj industriji kada sam pocela svoj blog. Blogovala sam i blogovala sve dok nisam zaradila to mesto za stolom. Samo da naglasim da nije sve med i mleko, takodje cujem o dogadjajima na koje nisam pozvana, ali kako znam da se radujem sto sam negde pozvana, tako znam i da izvucem motivaciju iz onih na koje nisam pozvana. Imam dosta prijatelja koji se rastuze i iznerviraju kada ne dobiju pozivniicu za neki dogadjaj, ali meni je potrebno jos zatvorenih vrata kako bih radila ka tome da ih otvorim. Znam da cu raditi dok jedno po jedno mesto ne zaradim. Ne bih zelela da imam sve, jer ka cemu bih onda radila?
Ko ima skuplju torbu, ko ima bolji outfit ili bolje mesto na reviji? Zaista nema veze. Ono sto ima veze je sta VI napravite od toga, nekim ljudima je sve dato ali ipak iz toga nista ne izvuku. Bitno je da se ne poredite sa drugima i da mozete razumeti zasto neki ljudi imaju vise pozivnica, poslova ili odece nego vi. Trava nije uvek zelenija u komsijinoj basti, ono sto je bitno je da rastete sami bez da se poredite sa nekim ko je vec narastao. Nadam se da vas je ovaj post inspirisao jer sam zaista bila iskrena o svemu sto se desava u modnim prestonicama. Mi ne spasavamo zivote, ali tamo ipak ima mnogo stvari koje ne mogu da objasnim, cirkusa, adrenalina, uzbudjenja. Ipak iako radim 28 dana tog meseca bez i pola dana pauze ne bih menjala ovu profesiju ni za sta na svetu, daje mi krila i jako sam zahvalna na svemu sto sam do sada prozivela.