DALLAS, Dec 4, 2003/ FW/ --- Two seasons, twelve fashion weeks, over 1,000 runway shows, at least 2000 articles written and roughly 20,000 photographs define the world of fashion for us here at FashionWindows.

The two seasons are fall/winter and spring/summer. For short, we just call it F/W season and S/S season. Or more often, we just call them the fall and spring seasons.

The fall season is held from mid-January to mid-March. It kicks off in Milan with the opening of the Milan Menswear Show, which is historically held in the middle of January for about 5 days.

Then the Paris Haute Couture and Menswear shows follow.

After a week’s break, the womenswear season begins. It starts in New York, then London, followed by Milan and ends in Paris.

The journalists and photographers collectively call New York, London, Milan and Paris the “international fashion scene”. Where that name came from, no one can really tell. Almost everyone just accept it as so.

The spring season is spread out compared to the fall season.

The Milan Menswear and Paris Menswear shows, together with the Paris Haute Couture show happen in July.

After a month’s break (August), the womenswear season starts again in mid-September, beginning in New York, then London, Milan and Paris, in that order. It ends mid-October in Paris, for a total of 6 weeks.

Putting it in terms of statistics, it does not sound hectic at all, that is, until you are “working” on the season.

A typical day during fashion week starts at 9AM and ends at 9PM. There are about 10 shows per day.

A journalist usually sees at least 5 of those shows, while a photographer can shoot almost all of them.

The main reason for the difference in workload for a journalist and photographer is journalists have to write the review as soon as the show finishes.

Photographers just shoot the show, and hands the memory card to a photo editor for editing if the photographer is shooting digital. If a photographer is using film, the film is just kept until the end of the day for delivery to the lab later.

A typical “crew’ during fashion week is three people – one writer, one photographer and one photo editor.

An ideal “crew” is composed of four people – two writers, one photographer and one photo editor. Some publications have less, some publications have more. It is a matter of the budget being spent during the season.

More people usually mean more expenses. So, it is safe to say that the bigger the size of the publication, the more people they can send to cover fashion week.

Before the advent of digital cameras, having a photo editor on site is not a need. But, most fashion photographers have gone digital, hence, the photo editor who usually stay in the office before, is now an inherent part of the crew for fashion week.

This is true especially for online publication like FashionWindows, where everything is in digital format. Photo editors manipulate the images for proper sizing for publication on the web.

And since the articles and the photos go hand in hand, the journalists, the photographer and the photo editor usually coordinate with each other on which articles can go online immediately.

Between watching the shows, photographing it, writing the articles and editing the photographs, a typical workday is roughly 16 hours for everyone.

There are no days off during the whole season because runway shows are also held during weekends.

In fact, one photographer said, “During the fashion season, no one is allowed to get sick or get tired.” And that is very true!

The shows will go on with or without you. If you miss it, that’s it. You only have one chance during the season.

And this goes on for at least 6 weeks for the womenswear shows alone.

If you are wondering how everyone survives this grueling schedule, the answer is “adrenaline.”

The shows create a lot of excitement. There is always a buzz going around, on who is hot and who is not. There are always whispers on the must-see shows, rumors on who are the celebrities who will attend, and most important, who are the names to watch on the crop of new designers showing that season.

To be on the cutting edge of fashion reporting, the crew who attends the shows always has their ears on the ground on who’s who and what’s what.

The established designers are givens, meaning, people already have certain expectations of them.

It is the new names that can always throw the journalists and the photographers for a loop.

Obviously, it is impossible to attend all the shows unless you have a big crew covering fashion week.

So, it is very important to know what is the buzz going around. No one wants to miss an important show, no matter how insignificant the name might look on the fashion calendar.

The glitz and glamour of fashion week is reserved for the celebrities, a chosen few among the fashion editors and the audience of the publication.

For the rest of those of us who attend fashion week, it is just another day in the office. And though we are in the middle of the excitement and takes part in it, at the end of the day, all of us are just tired workers who just want to put our heads on a pillow and sleep.