Girl Hammers and Angel Wings
after school weekend edition
Welcome back to After School Weekend Edition. Think of the Monday-Thursday letters as the CliffsNotes; this is the extended version for paid subscribers. Thanks for reading — your support makes this possible! 💫
Have I told you about the time I went to NYFW when I was in high school? I grew up obsessed with trends and clothes, and had a fashion blog (though “fashion blog” is being generous for what it was) and contributed to a few early-days style sites, fashion.about.com being one of them. Cynthia, who edited the site at the time, became something of a mentor for me — she’d mail me boxes of all of her print WWDs after she’d read them; I distinctly remember telling my boyfriend that I had to study and couldn’t hang out just so I could spend the evening reading old WWDs instead.
One year, Cynthia very graciously invited me to come to NYFW with her. I had never been to New York, and the experience was about as exhilarating and formative as you’d expect. I didn’t go to many shows, but I did have a pass to “the tents,” then located in the middle of Bryant Park. I posted up in that lobby for hours, flipping through Fashion Week Daily and just taking it all in.
At one point, I spotted Atoosa Rubenstein, who was at that time the EIC of Seventeen and to me, the most important person in media. I swear to god she was 6'5 in stilettos, a truly commanding presence; I was 5’3 in ballet flats that I’d bought from Target. I nervously sidled up next to her and introduced myself, handing her my business card. (Yeah, I was the kind of 17-year-old who had a business card.) A lot has changed since then, but Atoosa remains my idol.
A few years later, I moved to New York and worked at Teen Vogue. At some point, going to shows went from being thrilling to kind of a drag. So much schlepping from Milk Studios to Lincoln Center, often in uncomfortable shoes and always surrounded by the kind of people who desperately wanted to be discovered by The Sartorialist.
This year, through TikTok, I’ve found myself actually enjoying NYFW for the first time in a long time. It’s different than it was back then, but it feels both fun and influential again. (Easy to say when taking in the highlights from a small screen from the comfort of my couch, admittedly!)
What’s been interesting about this year’s NYFW is that TikTok, the platform, and TikTokers, the people, are more important than ever before. In 2009, the New York Times published a piece with the headline, “Bloggers Crash Fashion’s Front Row.” Suddenly, fashion editors were no longer top priority when it came to the best seats in the house. In 2015, The Guardian published a piece with the headline, “Instagram: Welcome to Fashion's New Front Row.” Fashion bloggers were no longer influential unless they also had substantial followings on Instagram. Now, nothing matters more than TikTok.
This is not the first year TikTokers have attended fashion week — Addison Rae and Charli D’Amelio have been going since 2021 — but you can feel a larger shift happening, not just in designers’ guest lists, but also designers’ NYFW strategies.
Alix Earle, the Cavinder Twins, Sofia Richie: These are the girls you want at your shows and parties, because these are the girls you want creating content on their platforms about you.
Fashion week just started on Thursday, so it’s really too soon to make any sweeping declarations…which is, I guess, exactly what I’ve been doing here. NYFW continues through Wednesday, and then London, Milan, and Paris, so more to come!🕵️
TODAY WE’RE TALKING ABOUT:
NYFW, obviously
Why were all the Gen Z TiKTokers in Williamsburg this week?
Target’s Rowing Blazers launch soiree
Staud’s Wrangler westerncore collab + expansion plans
Merit Beauty’s wildly viral eyeshadow
Victoria’s Secret’s social media flub
Hypebeast Flea Market
Walmart is doing something interesting
The fashion industry can’t stop making magazines
The new it girl trainer
Miralax is the new budget Ozempic
Pumpkin-spice makeup
Grocery Girl Fall
Plus everything else that happened this week in brands, trends, and internet culture. This letter is very long, so click view in browser to read the whole thing!
Before we jump in, my favorite TikTok of the week:
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