Designer styles ranged from very simplistic to extravagant fore-runners.

Victorian cameos were used an inspiration for this messy, modernized look.

Ever wondered what Fashion Week, the largest fashion event of the year, is like? This year, Javier Herrera of MFX had the opportunity to attend Fashion Week with Aveda to prepare models for the shows of some of the season’s hottest designers. After long hours, chaotic schedules and the subway, he survived to tell the tale!

The shows Herrera participated in during his four day stay were Sofia Sizzi and the Designer’s Premier, which included seven up-and-coming designers. He spent long hours interpreting the designer’s inspirations into a hairstyle that could hit the runway.  “[Days would begin] early in the morning, and go until late at night… One day, I was there from 5:30 in the morning until 8:00 at night. Not necessarily doing hair the whole time because we’d have to wait for other shows to finish, but I didn’t want to leave so I stayed there!… We started off backstage and worked on preparing the models. On one show, there were eighty models and thirty-five hairstylists. We were backstage preparing for the show for three hours before it started.” With 115 people in very small, cramped spaces, Herrera says things would get chaotic and crazy causing stress for him, the other stylists and the models. “There was a little bit of stress, but it all worked out in the end,” he says.

For Herrera, the best part of fashion week was being present to witness the great diversity of the designers, from “really simple couture to very vanguard.” The most difficult part? “Getting around. Because I don’t know New York very well, so it was difficult knowing where I was going for different shows. Or just being patient, having to be there for long periods of time without necessarily doing anything.”

Preparing the models could take up to 3 hours before showtime.

And of course, the most important part of fashion week: upcoming trends. Herrera predicts there to be a vast and broad range of styles headed our way this fall, many of which were present at the shows he participated with. When asked about what he sees for the season, Herrera says, “Very broad. I’m thinking a lot of the trends I’ve been noticing are 70’s. Texturized, messy hair. And of course, we did Hollywood glamour waves at the shows also. [Sofia Sizzi’s] show was a ‘take-off’ of Victorian style, but we modernized it by making it messy. She showed us pictures of [Victorian] cameos as her inspiration, and then we had to put a twist on it to make it more modern.”

Would Herrera participate in Fashion Week again? “I would definitely do it again. And I wouldn’t take my suitcases on the subway! That was a bad move, but I learned and I wouldn’t do that part again!”