As we find ourselves in the middle of yet another New York Fashion Week (of the Spring Summer 2012 installation), my fifth season, to be precise, I find myself once again pondering the riddle of the runway show seating chart. Like that of the Sphinx, the answer is at once hidden in plain sight (row 1 is the place to be, duh) and nonetheless also shrouded in PR-hierarchy mystery. But as bloggers continue to infiltrate the ranks, meaning that cameras now fire at the catwalk from the ranks of the front of house and not just the pit, the idea of what constitutes a "good" seat are shifting.
It used to be, rows one, two and three constituted those who "matter" most at a fashion show. The key buyers, editors, token celebrities and cheeky blogger or two. But with more and more ticket requests bombarding the inboxes of PRs everywhere as every tom, dick and fashionista launches a blog, tumblr, or whatsoever other means of homegrown media, the seating charts have had to stretch to accommodate-and the venues aren't getting any bigger but the objectives of the show, thanks at least in part to the explosive hold of social media on the industry, for both press and PR, are.
As a blogger, the conundrum is thus: pictures versus prestige. A second row ticket smack-dab in the middle of a row means a blogroll full of runway photos obscured by the silhouetted heads of those in front of you, but it also means kudos (and, if you're lucky, a goody bag). But a fourth row end seat, or, gasp, even more horrifying a notion, a standing ticket, can guarantee you much better (and, praise blog, headless) images. If you're "standing," you can feel free to move about the cabin at will: duck, crawl, climb and lean--whatever you need to do to get that shot. But can an SD card full of clear images of nicely framed models mitigate the sting of being handed your "seat assignment" branding an unsightly "ST" like a sartorial scarlet letter? Some bloggers I know think so, and have even started to ask as much in their ticket requests to PRs, others cling dearly to notion that seatage is power.
It's a game of see-saw really, that boils down to a key point recently taken up by an article in the Guardian, is fashion blogging about content or celebrity? While the answer to that brooding question looms large on the horizon, for my part, that of the seating chart and the blogger's role in it should remain, not one of the "best" seat in the house, but rather a sense of gratitude and accomplishment for making it into the house at all.
Read up on my NYFW adventures on The Clothes Whisperer and follow me on Twitter