After spending the afternoon at Nordstrom’s Clinique counter getting a personal skin consultation courtesy of Clinique who wanted me to try their new clarifying lotion, I went home and took a cat nap before getting ready to attend my very first Vogue fashion show.
–
As press, I was walked to the backstage of the show where hair and makeup was being done and while I was getting my bearings, America’s Next Top Model’s Nicole Fox came up to me and asked, “Do you know where the bathroom is?”
Uh, no, I replied, completely dumbfounded that I just talked to Nicole Fox, and as I stared at her walking away in search of the restroom all I could think of was watching scenes of her crying on ANTM. Now she’s runway for Vogue.
I was quickly ushered to the various beauty heads for interviews: Chanel’s celebrity manicurist, Stila’s celebrity makeup artist, and, unbelievably so, Mr. Angus Mitchell, son and heir of Paul Mitchell, and his wife Michelle.
The world of beauty is a really fascinating place. Perhaps sometimes viewed as the ugly step-sister of fashion, the beauty world is one I am etching into and enthralled to be admitted.
I was invited as a beauty editor to cover the hairstyles Angus Mitchell was doing for the Vogue fashion show. The show was run as a charity event for a nonprofit organization, Art of Elysium. And when there’s a black tie charity event, there’s a red carpet.
We stood waiting for all the fabulous people to arrive. Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Toby Maguire, Leighton Meester, Amy Smart, Elijah Wood, Camille Bell, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Kat Von D and Jesse James (whose level of fabulousness is questionable), and Eva Mendes, to name a few, who in a stunning Valentino rushed passed the paparazzi cameras on the red carpet. It’s amazing how close I got to these celebrities — people who before only existed to me in 2-dimension land. I had a very strong urge to reach out and poke them to see that they were really, truly real.
Once inside the California Science Center where the runway and surrounding dinner tables were set up, the aisles were crowded with people trying to find their seats. Kirsten Dunst literally brushed right past me and I just stared, amazed at the unbelievable closeness I was to these people. I walked right by a rather bored-looking David Spade, star of the awful TV series, “Just Shoot Me!” and Jake Gyllenhaal walked in late (sans Taylor Swift) just before Lisa Love, West Coast Editor of Vogue walked onto the runway to start the show.
Just as the lights dimmed, music cued and models lined up, I saw a rather familiar face who called out, “Sharon?!”
It was my classmate from literature class back in college. We took multiple classes together and I still remember some of her stories that I edited. I remember we once talked briefly on what we wanted to do once we graduated with our rather useless literature degrees. I wanted to go into journalism, she wanted to move to New York for fashion. After we graduated, I never heard from her or saw her since and now she was standing in front of me as pretty as I remembered her to be as a freelance styling assistant for Vogue.
It’s amazing how quickly time passes by, and how much things change. How once she and I were both college students with fine dreams of writing and beauty — and now we were actually making it, living it, being it.
—
Before the show started, we were able to take a sneak peek of the runway and the banquet hall before the celebrities arrived. Right when I walked in I felt like I walked through a time machine. This was where I had senior prom. Or at least where my ex-boyfriend’s senior prom was. I couldn’t believe it. After all these years, I wound up back. Standing there in the glamorously decked out hall set for the celebrity guests, I remembered dancing right where the runway stage was set up — dancing when I was 18-years-old with my then high school boyfriend. My, how far we’ve come.
