On Wednesday, I took an evening trip into the city to attend Oiselle’s New York Fashion Week after party. That’s right – a running apparel company was showing at Fashion Week!

When I was younger, if someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, they would get one of two answers: a fashion designer, or a lawyer. While my interest and passion for law never really flourished past the sixth grade (unless you consider following the law as interest in it), I’ve always been into fashion. I had intentions of applying to FIT when it came time to decide on colleges, but after a less than positive impression from a “college night” at my high school junior year, I decided it wasn’t really the place for me. So here I am now, with an English degree (and teaching certification), not really sure what I want to do and where I want to go. But that’s a post for another time! Naturally I was drawn to Oiselle as a running apparel company because they do more than “just make running clothes” – they support the running community and make the kind of running clothes I want to wear, whether I’m running or not.

Since I live in New Jersey, I was thrilled to hear some of the Oiselle ladies would be in the tri-state area, especially since it meant possibly getting to soak up some of the NYFW awesomeness. While I wasn’t able to attend the actual fashion show (it was closed to “industry” only, which I clearly am not), they did have an after party that I was able to attend, along with some of my favorite NJ/NYC/CT/PA based running blog buddies. After seeing some sneak peek pictures from the show, I couldn’t wait to get to the party and celebrate. Swim wear? Bright & bold colors? Short shorts? Amazing stuff!

I met up with Ashley to grab dinner once I got into the city, and we walked over to the party in Chelsea together. It’s so funny walking into a room full of people you know through the Internet – because you want to go up to them and strike up a conversation like you’re old friends, yet you’ve never actually met in person! As I was introducing myself as “Danielle,” I realized I needed to include my Twitter handle in order for people to put the two together, and a bunch of us joked that we should have worn name tags with our handles on them. It was so great to meet the brains & operations behind Oiselle, along with a bunch of fellow Oiselle Teammates and other people I interact with daily that I felt like I already knew! Unfortunately I had to leave to catch my train before I had a chance to get all fan-girl with Lauren Fleshman (should have brought my resume so she’d hire me as Jude the dude’s nanny…) but I did get to say hi to Kate Grace!

Admittedly I was a “bad” blogger and took zero pictures. I was too caught up in meeting everyone and chatting, that I forgot for a moment my phone had any purpose other than to tell me the time! But trust me when I say that the party was awesome, and somehow made me fall even more in love with a company than I thought possible.

So tell me…
Have you ever attended (any) Fashion Week events? 
When you were younger, what did you want to be when you grew up?