It's A Hard Knock World

by Dana Schuster

I arrived at the white tent at 4:00 p.m., excited about the prospect of covering the fashion show for TeenSpeak, albeit, even from a designated standing room only "seat". The show wasn’t starting until five, but I was more than prepared as I lapped around Bryant Park, anxious to see Betsey Johnson’s fall, 2001 collection. I had watched her shows on television before - playboy bunnies as models, an array of colors and heads of orange hair, shocking onlookers with her provocative choice of models at last year’s show.

But that’s what Betsey Johnson is, a shocker. She is not someone to shy away from color or headlines. Betsey Johnson has a way about her that makes you look twice. Her clothes carry just as much attitude. Her dresses have been my sister’s and my favorites for years.

4:15 p.m., I walked by the front entrance of the tent for a second time. Cameras were blinking and security guards were glaring as an entourage of people stood by the steps leading up to the entrance. I don’t want to be too early, I told myself. But then again, I certainly wasn’t in the position to be "fashionably late."

I did another lap, noticing the sleek dressed men talking on their cell phones. A woman passed me with a cropped, blue-dyed mink jacket. A bomber, 80’s style, I thought. She’ll definitely be at the show.

4:21 p.m., I passed by the back entrance to the Betsey Johnson show. About 30 photographers loitered around the backstage door to the Pavilion tent. You could feel the pandemonium building among the crowd as they fidgeted with their photo-gadgets and tested their cameras.