Two Ways to Crash Fashion Week Without Angering the Runway Gods

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New York Fashion Week: It gets so much publicity, and yet it's so clearly not a public event. This can be maddening to local fans like college student Maria Alexa Gee, who told today's NYDN, "It's like the Greek myth about the guy [Tantalus] who is always hungry, but he can't reach the fruit...It's right uptown, but I can't get into it."

If we've learned anything from NYFW's past season at Lincoln Center, though, it's that in some ways, the new location is actually friendlier to gate-crashers. Gee might not be able to see any runway shows, but her current plan—to round up some friends and hang out on the plaza outside the tents—isn't such a bad idea. The plaza acts as a lobby for the main building, so street style photographers tend to congregate there, and every so often someone famous (or at least fabulous) sweeps past, ticket in hand.

Of course, plenty of reasonable people who want to participate in Fashion Week might balk at lurking around in the February cold. For them, a better option would be Richie Rich's runway show, which anyone can attend for $25 ($35 for better seats.) Rich's shows tend to be big spectacles with celebrity guests ranging from Ellen DeGeneres to Pamela Anderson. This year, inspired by a friend who recently passed away, he's selling tickets to raise money for the charities DOsomething.org and Cookies for Kids’ Cancer.

Then again, there's always a third option: Stay home and watch live streaming runway shows on your laptop. Or a fourth option: Acknowledge that this is really just the world's fanciest trade show and skip the hoopla entirely.
· New York fashionistas find a way into the front row even without tickets [NYDN]
· Interview: The Glittery World of Richie Rich [Fashion Indie]
· Richie Rich runway show tickets [Eventbrite]