Now *sigh* on to the difficult part. Even
though this ought not to be the case, being fashionably late and a bit of haphazardness
especially on the last day is quite the norm at fashion weeks. Since I am not
just a victim but also a perpetrator of the former sometimes, I wouldn't mention that here. And I think I speak for a LOT of people when I say the
commercials being played endlessly really get on the nerves, as important as
it might be. But this post is not about such troubles.
Here I am just going to mention the few
things that stood out, and not in a good way.
Volunteers
sitting in the first row while journalists and
other media members present to cover the show seated at the back really
appalled me. I love fashion weeks so I am always tempted to just sit back and
enjoy the show. But I am also a journalist and a blogger, so my presence there makes
more sense and puts more responsibility on me to cover the event properly. The
perfectionist in me compels me to make my own notes there and then and not rely
on the press kits given to us.
And it just breaks my heart that someone
like me would be treated like this and I similarly feel for my other journalist
and blogger friends too. It is quite demotivating. Moreover, the volunteers are
there for assistance. These poor young girls don’t know anything about anything
and seem more scared and confused than anyone else. They might have been
instructed to fill the seats if the show starts, but they should be on the lookout
and give the seat up as soon as they see a guest in need of one. This fashion
week in particular, did not do much to help them as there were no labels on the
seats, or rather vague ones like, ‘media’. I am confused as to how much they
can be blamed alone.
As I saw, the second day, there were three
volunteers sitting in the front row and calling their friends from the back to
join them. They were also sitting in different rows at different points to hold
the seats for some ‘important people’.
Non fashion
fraternity invite list was something else that
confused me to the extent! Sau baat ki ek
baat, it is a fashion week, you need promotion and media, only media will
give you that. Be smart with the invite list. I did not see a lot of people
that should have been there and way too many families there to do something fun
over the weekend. This just shows your priorities. The invite list can be about
creating a good pr too, but again it is to be with the media and not your personal
contacts.
Call me whatever you will, but the souvenirs are something I really look forward
to, too. And I get extremely agitated if mine get stolen, of course. As unrealistic as I might be, I expect the crowd at
such events to be classy but I am always left disappointed. Despite the fact that there were three
volunteers at my row alone, my souvenirs got taken away by some lady in the
10-15 minutes that I was late. Makes me wonder what those girls are even standing
there for. Upon asking one to get me a set since I will be writing about everything and explaining everything to her, she told me she'll get me one in a while. She then went right in the front to enjoy the show and very conveniently came back at the end of it to tell me she could not find anything. She probably did not know, I could see her not doing a thing!
What’s more is, upon expressing my concern to a lady of authority
there, she out rightly just pointed out that this happens in every fashion
show, is not surprising or new. ‘Loag tou
chaltay chaltay utha ke le jatay hain. You come on time, you get stuff.’ I
was already upset at what had happened and quite hurt by her attitude and the response
I got from her. *sigh*
This one is for the ones who handled pr for
the fashion show. I talked to the CEO of the company for not more than two
minutes perhaps, and she was nothing but a sweetheart during that time. So this
pains me when I say, the management had
quite a few lackings on its part. I think she really needs to make a proper
team soon because she clearly has a long way to go and lack of a proper team is
what’s stopping her. Among other things, I did not get the pictures for the
event on time even after mailing them. I have never gotten a reply from them, I have
started doubting if it’s even their correct email address though it could very
easily be just the reason I mentioned earlier. Even after I asked one of my
friends to forward me the mail they sent to others, the links just contained
four pictures per designer which is too less! Even the other pr team sent the pictures 4-5 days after the fashion week had ended. This is one reason I am so late
at posting about the event.
I’d love to know what you think and what
you agree/disagree with. Leave a comment below!
SSK
No comments:
Post a Comment