Natalie Decleve's Final Thoughts From NYC Fashion Week

New York’s Fall Fashion Week 2011 is finally over - and boy, am I pooped. Besides all of the exciting fashion from the runways that I’ve been faithfully documenting for Guest of a Guest - I have some final thoughts and lingering questions from the past 7 days…

I spent a heck of a lot of time in the tents at Lincoln Center observing the wild, sometimes wacky and always wonderful people and events of the week – and am now looking forward to a long weekend spent comfortably under the radar.

1. Fashion Week is obviously a time for exercising your inner diva. Fur hats that must weigh more than a Labrador? Check. Queens in full drag at noon? Check. Big, dark sunglasses for day or night, inside and outside? Check.

2. Honestly, when else do you get to see folks just hangin’ out, walking around in the Alexander McQueen Armadillo shoes? NBD.

3. Is it possible to exist almost exclusively on Fiji water, tiny fruit-flavored bottles of Kefir and mini yogurt covered, DHL logoed rice crispy treats for an entire week? Yes. Is it the breakfast (lunch and dinner) of champions? Not so much. But at least my tummy should be mighty healthy from all those probiotics...

4. Who decided that the perfect accoutrement to the Mercedes Benz display would be a life-sized horse lamp?! What, a regular lamp was just too dull for Fashion Week? Are we supposed to jump up on there and pose too??

5. I may never get the song “15 to 20” by The Phenomenal Handclap Band out of my head - thanks to it being on EVERYWHERE both last season and this one. Surely there MUST be another techno upbeat, new-agey, so-hip-it-hurts song that we can use?!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NONo10bU67M[/youtube]

6. 7 straight days of running around in 4-6 inch heals does NOT do a body good.

7. Screw free manicures from Essie. Next year, I want foot rubs by Bliss.

8. What is the deal with the abominable fur man who lingers outside the tents every day, wearing what looks like 15 different types of road kill??

9. No seriously, who is that guy.

10. Thanks to the record-your-name-capture-thingy on photographer’s cameras: I may, or may not continue spelling my name to everyone I meet. “Decleve, yes, that’s D as in David, e, C as in Charlie…”

11. Clearly, I'm going to be "kind of a big deal" in Asia.

12. As much as you scowl or try to act blasé when people ask to take your photo, you know you love it. Let’s be real, when you start posing like Madonna in her Vogue video, it’s kind of a dead giveaway.

Make sure and keep in touch with me on my website: NatalieDecleve.com! And check out more from my GofG fashion week roundups here: [Natalie on GofG]