Imagine, you are invited to a fashion show and when you arrive at your seat, there is a crinkling white paper bag waiting for you. What do you do? A: you snatch the bag from the chair, dump the contents in your lap and start examining and testing everything, or B: you pretend the bag doesn't exist and take your seat without giving it a glance, casually pushing the bag aside. Those who said B get 10 points, those who said A may never show up at a fashion show again OR must pay extra attention during this Explorer. Because today we discuss the rules of the frow. In other words, the do’s and don’ts of the front row, which in some cases also apply to any other row.
The example of the goodie bag is a classic and applies not only at fashion shows but at every event where there is a goodie bag. You look at a goodie bag at home and never EVER at the party itself. That you then bounce off the walls at home because of the freebies is of course fine, but for the rest of the world, you act as if you really don’t need free stuff and those goodies are “oh maybe there’s something nice in it for my niece.” If the bag is REALLY good, you may say something about it on Twitter or Instagram, because that way you show the world that you have one too. But remember, always be blasé.
Then, you have avoided the goodie bag and taken your place on the frow. Often there is also a press kit there, which you leave alone and just sit on top of. Otherwise, it’s just in sight and blocks your outfit. Then your own bag, what do you do with that? A bag is a hassle. You usually don’t want to just put it on the ground because that’s so disrespectful and, assuming you don’t have a plastic bag or cheap H&M bag with you, also very wasteful. A few years ago, I went on a press trip to Paris for ELLE, where we had lunch in the gardens of master chef Alain Passard. Hilmar Mulder from Grazia was also there and didn’t know what to do with her beautiful, brand new Chanel bag – just putting it on the grass was REALLY not an option – and so a waiter rushed over who draped a neatly pressed cotton napkin on the ground so the bag could rest safely.) You hold a small clutch in your hand on your lap, but for larger ones and in the absence of waiters with napkins, you’d best park it behind your back if possible, and otherwise just on the ground next to your shoes, possibly ON the press kit. Those shoes, by the way, are very important and deserve more attention than your bag. The really important and chic women don’t carry a bag at all. Just pay attention, you never see Anna Wintour with a bag and neither does the editorial team of Vogue Paris, they have a driver waiting for them with a car and the bag. Anna has even more useful tips (and less useful ones, like ‘you must wear outfit once‘). Never ever wear sunglasses during the show unless you are Anna Wintour (and you are not) or if the designer specifically instructed you to, like Henry Holland did with Kelly Osbourne a few seasons ago, “it’s impolite. The five minutes the audience sees on the runway has taken the designer hundreds of hours to put together.”
Don’t act hysterically when a CELEBRITY is near you or just pretend you have no idea who you are dealing with.
Furthermore, use your phone only and exclusively to take photos and nothing else. To quote Olivia Palermo, “an email can wait 7 minutes.” Keep a low profile during the show, don’t chat and giggle extensively with your neighbor. Never do: shout if one of the models is a celebrity. Only Pixie Geldof seems to get away with it (“I shout at models when I know them; I’m like, oi! Eliza!”). Don’t chew gum, keep your legs crossed, especially in the case of a short skirt. Don’t act hysterically when a celebrity is near you or just pretend you have no idea who you are dealing with. Justin Bieber who?
Take all this to heart and before you know it, you are the ultimate Front Row Girl. A FRG, that is. In the wonderful book ‘Bergdorf Blondes’ (required reading for everyone), a number of characteristics of this FRG are listed and with two of them, I would like to conclude this Explorer:
1- Dress size: sample – i.e. 0, or 2 at the largest. If you get onto the front row and you’re not thin, you need a lot of personality to make up for it.
2- Best friends: other Front Row Girls. FRGs don’t converse with Second Row Girls – it’s very bad for their backs to twist back like that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXRmWzi2ne4
