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See You Next Season!
Paris Fashion Week Fall 2003
By Mari Davis
Photos by Javier Mateo
Click here to view slideshow.
PARIS, Mar 15, 2003/ FW/ --- The international fashion season officially ended yesterday as
the Paris Ready-To-Wear season drew to a close.
The Fall 2003 season which officially started in Milan last January with the Milan Menswear
Show covered 4 cities and 7 shows, if we include the Spring 2003 Paris Haute Couture Show.
And for three months - from January to March, the fashion gypsies composed of editors and
photographers travelled from city to city covering over 500 runway shows.
And this international community of the fashion press, who hails from 5 continents are thrown
together in this nomadic event called 'the fashion season.'
Yesterday, as the press lounge was being dismantled at the Carrousel of the Louvre, and
laptops were being put away, everyone was saying goodbye with 'See you next season!'
knowing full well that in 3 months time or in six months time, they will meet each other
again.
Because such is the life of fashion nomads, where friends are from far flung places and
you meet them twice a year.
In between, communication is via email or phone and seeing their by-line on articles or
photographs.
And though they are separated by oceans and continents, the frienship is tight. It's because
they share the same passion for fashion. It's also because 'you have to be there' to understand
what everyone goes through during each season.
Part of the life of the fashion press is living out of a suitcase for three months, where
'home' is a hotel room.
A laptop and internet access are needs and not want. Though the fashion press might not be
as wired as the IT road warriors, they rely on the internet to submit their articles and
photos to their publications.
Everything is done on the go. After each show, a photographer downloads to his laptop and then
the photos are uploaded somewhere, where his or her publication can get to them for printing
the next day.
The editor basically does the same thing - either writing the article after each show or at the
end of the day and sent via email to their home office.
The fashion press is part of the information age and more technically advanced than what meets the eye.
Most fashion photographers have now turned digital photographers because speed is of the essence
when submitting photos.
Alexander McQueen's show, the best show during the Paris season ended about 9:30PM Paris time,
and it was on the front page of the fashion section of a London paper the very next day!
'Have laptop, will travel' has become the mantra of the fashion press. Without the technology
they carry around, the news from the runways will not be as fast as you see it now.
Technology is only a small part of the fast exchange of information. People are still the
driving force in bringing to the public instantenous fashion news.
Working 12 to 16 hours a day, the fashion press does not stop until the last show is done for
the day.
Lunch means 4:00 PM and dinner means 10:00 PM. As for breakfast, they don't even talk about it.
It's eaten on the go, if they have time.
The amazing part of all this - everyone can still laugh!
Even when they have to go through tight security or be pushed around, the moment a show is
done, and they are on post production in between shows, they find the 'mean security guard'
hilarious in their seriousness of executing their duties.
There is camaraderie in the press room. And though someone might be upset on what happened
on the show before, being around their peers put everyone back in their good humor.
Because, in the final analysis, they are doing what they love doing - covering fashion.
So, yesterday at the Louvre, when hugs and handshakes were being exchanged, there was a
certain sadness because the season is over. Yet there is also optimism, because everyone
knows that there will always be the 'next season!'
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