American Express MADE Fashion Week VIP Experience

Designers Flora Gill and Alexa Adams of Ohne Titel were part of the American Express series of VIP ticketed shows at MADE Fashion Week.

If you believe like I do that fashion can be entertainment as well as art (and of yes a business too) then you might enjoy the pampering experience of attending a MADE Fashion Week show via the VIP experience that American Express offers their cardholders.   For over a year, American Express has offered cardholders the chance to buy tickets to see shows at both Lincoln Center in the SKYBOX and at MADE Fashion Week sitting next to the runway.  This year I had the chance to attend the Ohne Titel Spring/Summer 2015 show as a VIP at MADE Fashion Week in New York City at Milk Studios.  It’s a much different experience than attending a show at Lincoln Center.

Attendees posing with Micah Jesse (pictured far left) one of the American Express hosts of MADE Fashion Week. (image courtesy of American Express.)

If you attend a fashion show in the Skybox at Lincoln Center, it’s  a bit like going to the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center.  You are there as a privileged spectator to enjoy the show.  If you attend a MADE Fashion Week show at Milk Studios, it’s more like going to a rock concert– you are there to not only see the show, but also to get involved in the show.  Through their partnership with MADE Fashion Week, American Express offers customers an entertainment experience.   Consumers get tickets to a fashion show, a blow dry or hair styling (this year from New York’s Drybar),  photos of them on a red carpet taken by a professional photographer with a MADE Fashion Week backdrop and access to a VIP lounge area stocked with Champagne and hor d’oeuvres.  Following their trip to the VIP lounge area to have photos and hair services, attendees are  escorted to runway side seats from the VIP lounge by an American Express concierge.  After the show, attendees return to the VIP lounge  area for a live Q & A session with the designers.

Unique fabrications were part of the Ohne Titel fashion show and discussed during the post show Q & A.

Ohne Titel (partners Floral Gill and  Alex a Adams) showed at MADE Fashion Week on Monday, September 8th at 1pm.  I was surprised to see several professional women leaving their jobs to attend the show on their lunch hour and experience the VIP treatment at MADE Fashion Week. For them, it was a welcome lunch break and a quick train ride down to Milk Studios.   I was surprised that all the attendees knew the designers and had even shopped their collections at Saks Fifth Avenue where Ohne Titel is sold.  During the QA, the attendees had great questions for the designers.   They asked everything from  how the designers named their fashion label (they had decided they didn’t want to use their own names) to the types of fabrics used in the collection.

Each of the attendees I spoke with really enjoyed their fashion week experience at MADE.  When I went to the SKYBOX to see a show, may of the attendees were tourists.  At MADE Fashion Week, the VIP attendees were native New Yorkers.  There were under 15 attendees for the show who had purchased their tickets for the VIP experience, making it a very intimate experience.  At the end of the Q & A session, the designers graciously posed for pictures with the American Express VIP attendees.  The experience closes with each attendee being escorted to the lobby of Milk Studios and receiving a special gift.

If you’re looking to experience a bit of New York Fashion Week and you’re not media or a celebrity, then you might want to check out the MADE Fashion Week American Express VIP experience.  It’s a fun way to experience a fashion show and get a little bit of pampering VIP style. Starting at $250 per person tickets can be purchased to view two fashion shows, participants get VIP-style treatment and enjoy a special hospitality suite with  food and drinks.  American Express Membership Rewards can be used towards the ticket purchase price.