Going to New York Fashion Week is the gravy on Thanksgiving. It’s the icing on the cake. I set aside two whole days – Thursday & Sunday – to do whatever I wanted. Friday and Saturday were for what passes for “work” in this field – fashion shows and street-style photography – but Thursday & Sunday were for vacation. This post is about Thursday, and Fashion’s Night Out. I’ll be posting about Sunday and all my great thrifting finds within the next week or so.

Being on vacation is all about a state of mind. It’s about being relaxed, and exploring a foreign place. Well, with all this self-imposed free time on my hands I did what every young broad in the big apple should do – I spent half the day wandering through Bergdorf Goodman. If there’s a Vatican of fashion, this is it. The precisely decorated nooks for each designer lent an Alice-in-Wonderland vibe to the excursion, and down the rabbit hole I fell. I ran into Phillip Lim’s team dropping off comic books for the FNO party later that evening, and they invited me down to the party at the boutique in Soho where they said there’d be autographed copies.

See Phillip Lim’s signature in gold above the sticker? And the dress on the cover matches the dress in the window (yes, captain obvious…) After chatting with Refinery29 New York’s editor (and party hostess) Annie Greenberg, I jumped on the subway and headed north to the Opening Ceremony party at the Ace Hotel. Unfortunately my New York partner-in-crime Rhianna had to work at ACNE’s FNO party that evening, so I was flying solo. God, #fashiongirlproblems I know!

Opening Ceremony’s FNO party was a must see, especially since it was K-Pop themed. Rhianna and I waited outside for hours last year. This year, no way! I got in early. I adore Opening Ceremony and my credit card feels the pain. Shopping at OC feels like being in the clubhouse for fashion kids, like you just absorb coolness via osmosis through the air. I was a little disappointed the other people at the FNO party weren’t so friendly, but that’s par for the course in fashion especially at a public event. With loud music and partygoers arrayed in cliques like social armour, I knew right away that it’d be hard to meet new people. But whatever, I had a blast anyway and I met a really cool blogger, Kerrin, wearing the coolest Charlotte Olympia cat shoes. Going to parties in New York alone is like trial by fire – it takes a thick skin, but the benefits are well worth it.