MAYA'S NEW YORK FASHION WEEK DIARY

10:00 AM:

Finally exited bed after waking up at 7am to some lovely Brooklyn ambiance. We love a Bushwick queen.

10:30 AM:

Breakfast FIRST. I had oatmeal because it is the perfect food. This isn’t a hot take, but just a pure fact.

11:00 – 12:00 PM:

I am getting ready very very v e r y slowly, because I have no class and therefore what feels like infinite time. What is the look I am constructing on my face and why am I not documenting it? You’ll see >:) (This is a teaser btw)

12:15 PM:

Taking the Super Reliable MTA™ to the Lower East Side for Collina Strada. Carrying my usual 20 pounds of sh*t, because I’ve always wanted an even more severe case of my 7th grade scoliosis. Low-key problematic jokes aside, my bag STAYS heavy and I stay…in it ;-)

12:40 PM:

Waiting outside Collina Strada FW19 and making friends with fellow bloggers/“creatives” (whatever THAT means) in the industry! Took some lovely streetwear photos, and blocked traffic to take those lovely streetwear photos. PC @richardcadrouce.

1 PM:

Collina Strada FW19 show. Was incredibly pleasantly surprised to see my internet friend and personal pal of former Editor Tia, Paris (@parieantoinette) opening! Lots of ideological thoughts swimming after this show: mainly of the “lewk” aspect that was applied to environmentalism in a fashion-y space filled with umpteen people flaunting their consumption (myself included). Guiding question: is this fashion’s job? should it be? and how might this dialogue happen differently with an awareness of neoliberalism under the veil of design?

1:45 PM:

I walked to Planned Parenthood to call an Uber to a casting with my agency, Wespeak NYC (@wespeakny). While waiting I asked some lovely volunteers over at PP to document my tonala brown cowthey/them lewk, which is currently up on our Instagram!

2:17 PM EXACTLY:

I arrived at my casting, sat on a very comfy couch, met a fellow model while waiting for the casting director to get back from lunch. Walked in, did my “thing” which consisted of taking a few test shots before being off on my merry way!

2:45 PM:

Having forgotten the lunch that I packed for myself the NIGHT BEFORE (you’re slackin,’ Maya), I went to Dig Inn for a meal very similar to the one I had absolutely cheffed for myself last night. Charred chicken, farrow (if u kno, u kno), kale Caesar, THE mac n cheese (if u kno, u REALLY f*ckin kno) and a side of rosemary dressing. Delicious.

3:20 PM:

Having 5+ hours left until Telfar, I decided to post up at school to feast and do the approximate 4 hours of work I had to do :’) Come thru time management! I read about 200 PDF pages, took many notes in even many-er colours, and ran into several friends.

5:30 PM:

Stumbled upon a meeting for my school’s fashion journal, Embodied ! I’d always planned on joining but never did the minimal “labour” to schedule my time around meetings. Through an invite from my friends Kaylee (@okayylee) and Shanti (@sed_paz), I officially joined as a writer, participated in the pitch meeting, and met the other gals of the publication! Then…

6:15 PM – 8 PM:

I ran into another friend in my same scholarship group who reminded me that we had a meeting that evening (in 15 minutes) so I skedaddled up two floors to reminisce with my fellow scholars and supervising professors about our previous school-sponsored trip to Japan, as well as our impending participation with our school’s academic travel journal, Mosaic. After free dinner (also school-sponsored), and the usual lovely experience-based ideological conversation, I set off for Telfar.

8:17 PM EXACTLY – 9:19 PM also EXACTLY:

I bounced up about 10 blocks to the venue for Telfar’s FW19 presentation/concert where I waited for an hour and two minutes in not-that-cold-but-still-fairly-inconvenient weather. Classic fashion week struggles; stuck in the cold with a lot of really beautiful people trying to sneak their equally beautiful pals into the shows with them, because they know someone working PR. I had a really good attitude through it all, and even ran into someone who currently works at my previous retail job! Their street style pic is adjacent:

9:21 PM:

*hacker voice* I’m in. The show was absolutely stunning – from models being carried on shoulders across the makeshift crowd-runway to extreme bass to Black countryman aesthetics…whew, chile. I was living. The Southern CowPerson™ in me was getting their absolute jush. I diet-moshed with two phones and one camera in my hand as well as my 20-pound bag on my shoulder with an eclectic mob of neo-club kids, hypebeasts, and ~those~ Anne Demeulemeester stans whose dress says more about them than they think.

Around 10 PM (?? time was an illusion at some point during this show):

Na-kel Smith took the stage absolutely f*cked out of his mind and it was…SENDING me. He closed out the live performances by Total Freedom and HO99O9 with a classic swaggered out motivational speech leaving the audience and myself alike, uh, motivated. (I also dapped him up which was very cool.)

10:30 PM:

Called the uber home before the after party, because I had class the next morning at 9:30. Then called Rich and Yaz (Father and Mother Kotomori) to tell them about my day’s antics, because I missed them and would not be able to do so much cool sh*t without them.

11:45 PM:

Showered up, moisturized, hair wrapped and in bed before midnight bay-beeee.

What a lovely first solo NYFW! Special thanks to Autumn and Tia for solidifying these invites, and to my blistered ankles for really DOING it all day in them cowgirl f*ckin boots girl, bitch disGUSted.