The Fashion Week circuit started in New York two weeks ago, and two ISU students along with alumna Katelyn Herlein experienced the excitement firsthand.

Just three seasons ago, Herlein, e-commerce editor of Divine Caroline at Meredith Corporation and fashion blogger behind Katalina Girl, pitched the idea of covering New York Fashion Week to her editor and was given two weeks to prepare. With more time to prepare this season, Herlein contacted and met with numerous public relations contacts, such as Tarte Cosmetics, Redken and Pureology, to learn of upcoming products that will be featured at the shows.

Once she was at the show, Herlein continued to work with the public relations representatives. She went backstage to see what different designers were doing for hair, makeup and nails.

“A lot of my contacts actually started because of my blog,” Herlein said.

She also said that having the Meredith Corporation name behind her was beneficial.

Regardless of her growing black book of contacts, Herlein still purchases a list of public relations contacts from the New York Fashion Week venue before shows. Since no show allows public entry, one has to attain a media pass.

“It’s a showing of their designer’s collections for buyers and editors because they want people to buy their clothes and to write about them,” Herlein said.

With the earliest tickets being sent a week in advance, it’s difficult for the blogger to prepare that extensively. Herlein knows she will most likely do daily recaps and what she thinks the trends will be in a slideshow format for readers. For this particular season, Herlein said she played with the concept of short YouTube videos to capture her days at fashion week.

In seven days, Herlein attended roughly 35 events, either a runway show, presentation, backstage or public relations meeting focusing on backstage beauty regimes. Herlein said she prefers presentations, which could last up to two hours. The models are shown in their outfits and they rotate which model is the focus. Herlein said this allowed a more personal and interactive experience for all involved.

Herlein not only went to the New York Fashion Week for Meredith Corporation but also for her blog, which is how Meredith found and hired her. With a following of 5,500 and counting, apparel companies seek out Herlein to wear their specific garments and advertise them on her blog and social media outlets. Many of these companies are based in New York, so she made an effort to meet up with them while she was there and strengthen relationships.

Being the e-commerce editor for a major publication, a blogger with a wide following, co-founder of Midwest Blogger Society and social media director for the first blogger conference in the Midwest — known as “Go Blog Social” — Herlein said fashion week is still the most exhausting week of her life.

Raina Edel, former intern at Marie Claire Magazine and senior in apparel, merchandising and design, also attended New York Fashion Week.

Before she ended her summer internship, Edel said she asked if the magazine would need her help once fashion week came around in the fall. After Marie Claire recommended that Edel and two of the other interns come back, there was no needed preparation on her behalf while she was in Ames for the beginning of the semester. However, that was not the case for her while in New York.

Edel was able to work with Marie Claire for seven days, working with public relations representatives to make sure all the editors had access into the shows. Then she organized their schedules on Excel spreadsheets. She also made packages with invitations, bar codes and maps for all of the editors to use to during their long days. Edel said her main job was to organize every aspect of the editors’ days to make their lives a little easier during fashion week.

Because major publications such as Marie Claire get asked to attend many shows at coinciding times, interns are sometimes asked to attend in the place of an editor so they don’t disrespect the designer by leaving an open seat. Edel was fortunate enough to attended Nicole Miller’s show.

Edel said that when those opportunities arose, it was smart for interns to have an opinion about the show and other aspects of fashion week. An editor once told her the number one thing she looks for during an interview is if the person has an opinion and if they have one about everything. The editor also said to have a polished manicure, but that’s beside the point.

Edel said that without media outlets, designers would not gain nearly as much promotion. When editors are present at shows, they talk and write reviews for the rest of the world. The editors also articulate ideas from the garments shown in order to look for potential garments to use in photo shoots in their next spread.

Even though the press is envied during this week, a lot goes on besides social events.

”There was definitely nights where I didn’t get any sleep,” Edel said. “I think it’s a misconception about fashion interns that it is all glamorous, but it’s a lot of work and running around the city. Especially being from Iowa, it is so intimidating.”

Eileen Moores, senior in apparel, merchandising and design, attended New York Fashion Week as well.

Moores handled product development logistics while at Bespoken, a menswear company in New York, this summer, but she worked as an extra hand for the small team during fashion week. Working on the design end of the spectrum, Moores said she was able to see the garments from start to finish as they premiered during the exhibit-style show.

Being the only intern for the team, Moores was delighted when they asked her back for fashion week and bought a ticket for the four-day trip. She helped the team of six, with a temporary styling team and tailor, a few days before by putting trims together as they tailored all the outfits to the models. The team also decided at last minute to feature two female looks, so Moores was also involved with tailoring men’s clothes to women.

Moores said she had more of a voice with the smaller knit group and made very good relationships with all of her bosses because they knew her on a personal level.

“I developed and blossomed more in the internship this summer, so in the fall I was very comfortable with being vocal about things that I thought would look good,” said Moores.

The day of the show Moores helped all the models get ready, which she said was a very relaxed process. Her major tasks were to get the clothes in the van, steam them, adjust them to fit the models and clean up after everything was said and done.

“I loved it,” Moores said. “For menswear, at least from what I’ve experienced, there is no drama.”