destination: New York Fashion Week

Travel style: I like to keep it casual and comfortable. And I always pack my Tumi luggage.

First night out for a runway show and dinner. This dress from Avenue 32 was perfect!

By the third day, I was grateful that I packed these flats. They saved my feet!

It was surreal to be there on 9/11. I snapped this shot out the window of our cab after dinner.

We were invited to the rewardStyle party. I found this dress while shopping in NYC and decided to wear it.

The flowers in the Chelsey Flower District are spectacular! We walked between brand meetings and found these beauties!

Alicia and I had several brand meetings. This one was with the fabulous designers of Eliza J. Wait until you see their Spring/Summer 2017 collection! I get asked about this top all the time. It’s from Zara and you can find it here.

I ran down to meet with GiGi New York at their pop up shop. How cute is this photo set up?

WOW! Where has the time gone? It’s been two weeks since I returned from my first New York Fashion Week. Today I am sharing my travel guide on how we conquered this NYC in four quick days.

I’ve blogged about my street style here and here but today I am going to share how we planned this trip. I was with a group of my blogger friends and I roomed with my blogger BFF The Lush List. What I haven’t told you is that we literally decided to go two weeks before we left. That was very little time to plan and execute NYFW given that we needed to contact PR firms to request shows, set up brand meetings, visit some showrooms and map out where everything was going to occur. Going forward, I will always allot a full month to planning any fashion week. It just takes that long to get all the moving parts organized.

Thankfully The Middle Page took care of all the dining reservations as well as booking our hotel. I’ve been to NYC many times but I find that each time is a different trip because of what you are doing. In fact, Pete and I were just there in April because we had tickets to Hamilton. This time it was all about a girls trip which has a different vibe.

I am detailing our plans below with links to everything we did. If I go again I will tweak this plan a bit. For instance, it would be wise to stay in  the Meatpacking District because that’s where all the shows are. You should see my taxi/Uber bill. Yikes! Additionally, I would prioritize my days with brand meetings, runway shows, showroom visits and then worry about dinner and shopping locations. You live and learn!

NYFW 2016 Itinerary

Travel: We booked our airfare on Southwest Airlines and got a roundtrip fare of $147.50! And that was with booking it just two weeks prior to departure. Non-stop flights from Dallas Lovefield to NY Laguardia. Always check various carriers because there are good deals out there!

Hotel: Michelangelo Hotel NYC This is a lovely, four star hotel located in midtown at 152 West 51st Street (near Time Square). The bonus was that the rooms were huge (by NYC standards) and we each had a king size bed. Since we were rooming two gals to a room this really made a difference! The staff was lovely and the doormen were exceptionally helpful.

Eat:  Morandi NY for great Italian food, STK rooftop for great food and an incredible view, Gotham Bar and Grill for fantastic ambiance. We stumbled into Sant Ambroeus on Madison Avenue by accident and happily had the most amazing Sunday brunch. We had protein bars in our purses every day because it was rare that we had time for breakfast!

Do: When we landed we headed directly to the Shopstyle Social House to look at some brands. We were also invited to the rewardStyle party. Both are blogger events. We also ran to Barneys and Bloomingsdale’s for some quick shopping since we don’t have those stores in Dallas.

NYFW experience: Veronica Beard presentation in the NYC store and basement (super fun party with a 70’s vibe), Erin Featherston runway show, Prabal Gurung runway show, Leanne Marshall runway show, Verdad presentation, Eliza J brand meeting, Talbots brand meeting and One Kings Lane brand meeting. Whew, I got all that done in four days!

I will be posting runway show photo’s in an upcoming post and sharing my top trends for spring/summer 2017. So what do you think? How did I do for my first time? Honestly, it was exactly what I thought it was going to be – hectic!

xoxo – Tanya

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