My LA. Fashion Week Experience!
I went to L.A. Fashion Week beauties! For those who don't know L.A. Fashion Week occurs biannually in March and October. It is basically a series of small fashion shows that last about 20 minutes each and 20-30 minutes of intermission between each show as they set up for the next one. I was invited to attend by my friend Elisheba owner of Vogue and Vine Clothing. It was my first time attending this event and I was super excited and had a great time, but it was a process...let us start at the beginning. I got the invite on Wednesday afternoon stating we would be leaving at 6 a.m. Saturday morning. Since I am a model and self proclaimed fashionista, my first thought was what do I wear!! But as a hairstylist and a business woman I had to first reschedule all my Saturday clients. Fortunately, they were understanding that this was a once in a lifetime experience and I was able to reschedule most of them for Thursday and Friday afternoon. So Friday evening after my last beauty of the day, I headed to the outdoor mall to hit up a couple of my favorite stores. Store number one, had absolutely nothing and I wasted 30 minutes of the little bit of time I had. Store number two was more promising and had a couple of options. Being a model I knew what I wanted to look like in my head and I just needed to put it together. I knew I wanted to wear all white, because it screams fresh, and new, and I look good in it lol. So I find the perfect outfit, a white lace tank top and short matching white skirt. The problem is I wore the exact same outfit the Friday before to an event in Las Vegas but in black😩 . Oh well, NEW CITY! NEW RULES! So I purchased it. Now what was I going to do with my hair? I mean I am a WIG MAKER right? This seems easy enough right? Wrong! The biggest question for any hairstylist is who does YOUR hair?! It would be easy to just put on one of my wigs and showcase my products. But I've been natural for a few years now and I have to mentally prepare myself to braid all this hair! As a matter of fact the amount of hair on my head that would need to be braided in order to fit it under a wig in such a short amount of time deemed impossible. Did I mention I HAD to attend my friend Jasmine's major birthday turn up that night too!
So after attending the birthday turn-up and getting home at 4 a.m. we got on the road from Las Vegas to Los Angeles at 6 a.m.
We get to L.A. and the weather is CRAZY!! It was cold, VERY COLD! My last minute white outfit that I got Friday evening is completely out the window! Luckily the model in me brought 2 other possible outfits, just in case. I ended up going with outfit number three. Outfit number three was a beige, short sleeves , turtleneck pencil knee length dress I paired it with a jean jacket over it and beige heels. Mind you ,I've been Vegan for almost a year and have lost a considerable amount of weight and inches , so the dress was too big and I would be hiking it up on my waist all night long. Anyway, as me and Elisheba get dressed, I do both our hair and makeup. I ended up putting my hair in a cute natural high bun with some bold red Fenty Beauty Stunna lip paint. Yep the wig making, hairstylist opted to do basically nothing with her own hair. Now as I finish our makeup I notice I know have foundation, in three places all down the right side (my photogenic side! Ugh 😑)of the dress. I could have died! What else could go wrong tonight! We show up 45 minutes early for the event only to be reminded that we were in L.A. and nothing starts on time, and no ones is in a hurry...ever. We wait 30 minutes in line IN THE COLD and I see my knees start to become ashy. Ladies I'm 6'3" in heels, in a jean jacket, and a dirty dress standing in line! Once inside the venue I realize that L.A. people are different, REAL DIFFERENT and have a totally different sense of style. Now we were told to dress to impress and honestly...I could have worn my favorite ADIDAS track suit with heels 😒
Once inside we get VIP wristbands and were seated in the front rows so that was a plus! We head straight to the bar. We mingle a bit, a few celebrities I saw in attendance were Ceelo Green and his son, British music artist Estelle, and Tokyo Stylez. Yep that Tokyo Stylez, celebrity hair guru, a.k.a. THE WIGMAKER!!! And I the Wig Making Hairstylist has her hair in a high bun, and no wig! I was star stuck and went up to him and asked for a photo, he was super nice, and made sure we pointed to the light for the perfect selfie. For a second I forgot about my little dirty dress! We were seated behind him and his team and you know I was all up in his hair trying to check out his amazing 30" jet black unit he was wearing and I thought hmm. my wigs look like that, I must be doing something right! The first fashion designer had beautiful pieces, they were not everyday wear, but more high end couture futuristic pieces. After a 20 minute intermission and another trip to the bar the second fashion designer's showcase was more of a 1940's vibe, I would call the pieces vintage, but they were equally as beautiful. Another 30 minute intermission and an announcement was made that the final designer of the night had a showcase that would be outside. Outside? Back into the cold! It was even colder now that the sun had gone down and the air was coming off the water that surrounded the area. I remember drag queens, and being cold, so after 5 hours of sitting and standing for 20-30 minutes in heels we called it a night. The next morning we meet up for brunch with a gentlemen we networked with that night named Luqman. He is an up and coming Radio host, YouTuber, and Fashion Blogger and super nice guy. The first location served brunch but not mimosas...I mean why are you open? What is brunch without bottomless mimosas? So we went somewhere else. The second place was a nice location called Salt Cure that served brunch and had mimosas. We mentioned to the waiter that we were from out of town and wanted to go somewhere, classy, and chill, where the cultured, black excellence crowd hung out at. Somewhere like Blue Martini in Las Vegas on Sunday nights. He tells us about a spot called Comfort L.A. As we finish brunch and head to the spot we notice there were a lot of homeless people hanging around and I'm pretty sure we were close to Skid Row. We should have known something was up from the “Come Get That Action “sign outside of the establishment. Once inside we realize this was not the place we wanted to be and we were way to bougie (and a little tipsy off mimosas) to hangout there. By that time we had just about enough of L.A. for one visit! We headed back to Las Vegas shortly after and got home by 11:30 p.m. It was absolutely a once in a lifetime, great experience and I would love to do it again. But babyyyyy let me tell you. The next time, She. Me. Her. will be better prepared.
