Erin Fetherston's success as a designer — and her charming personal style — have made her a regular fixture on the Fashion Week scene, but she wasn't always included on guest lists. We talked with the flaxen-haired designer about her elaborate plan to sneak into her very first runway show when she was just an 18-year-old intern at a "major" fashion magazine in New York.
"It was September. A couple people from the magazine were invited to the Calvin Klein show at Milk Studios. The art department got a copy of someone else's invitation and they basically made a bootleg copy for me — but totally using their amazing art production equipment!
"I was so nervous. I was completely sneaking in, and I feel like that didn't happen that much back then. Before the digital era and before Fashion GPS I feel like it was harder, because you really needed to have that physical invite.
"I remember going to the show and hiding it [the invitation] with the envelope or folded in half. I walked right in and I remember just being amazed. Once the show was over everyone was kind of hanging out and drinking champagne and there was Shalom Harlow and Amber Valletta. It was just amazing for me."
Fetherston added that she's been showing her collection at Milk for the past few seasons, and she always sees "student crashers. I always let them come in because I was totally the same," she said.
We also asked Fetherston about her signature coif. She told us she focuses on getting haircuts that grow out well (her go-to is Edward Tricomi at Warren Tricomi) and conditioning it with Shu Uemura and Redken products to keep it healthy — but she says she doesn't want her hair to get more attention than she does.
"I've had my bangs for such a long time and I know people really associate me with them," she said, laughing. "You don't want to be defined by something like your haircut. I feel like it was starting to overshadow other things that I do in my life, which I think are more interesting."
