Success!

We got in! Armed with a badge and a ticket from last season, Leighanne and I walked straight past the guards and in to the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week tents.

Right away I noticed that the energy was nothing like it was in September. There wasn't music, there weren't as many people there, there were less sponsors shelling out free stuff, etc. This could be for a variety of reasons: the Fall season is less important than the Spring, so a lot of people don't even come, a lot of designers pulled out of the tents at the last minute due to economic reasons, and it was only the first day and there weren't really any huge designers showing last night.

Either way, I was stoked to be there. It's the 50th anniversary of Barbie, so there was a huge Barbie centerpiece with vintage Barbies holding up the flat screens, and the letters in the Barbie sign were full of, well, Barbies.

There was still an open bar and Leighanne and I helped ourselves to four free French martinis. We tried to get in to the Academy of Art show by saying that we had confirmed late and just wanted a standing ticket, but the pretentious girl with the clip board wasn't buying it. Oh well, it's only the first day. I'm just glad I got to be inside the tents again.