Vogue Etiquette: The “Rules” of Fashion Week, According to Lynn Yaeger and Style Not Com

Can you critique the collection with your seatmate in real time?

Yaeger: I’m a very bad girl with that—people want me to shut up. I also make faces and people say, “People can see you make faces. Please stop making those faces!” This is bad, bad behavior on my part. I’ve been known to turn to Mark [Holgate] and say, because I don’t even trust myself, “This is fabulous, right?”

Gvishiani: It usually happens after the show, but there have been many cases that I make eye contact with someone who is sitting opposite me—it’s sometimes fun to share it live because it’s pure of-the-moment emotion.

Should you always applaud the finale?

Yaeger: Yes, of course.

Gvishiani: Yes, always. I have a really loud clap. Some people have even said, “Oh my God, how do you generate this sound?”

Can you eat during a fashion show?

Yaeger: You should not. I mean, maybe you can have a drink? Once I was absolutely starving and had a bag of potato chips before Joseph Altuzarra started. It was at night. I didn’t eat all day, but I was chomping on these chips and I just thought, Okay, this is not so chic.

Gvishiani: I never eat during the show, sometimes, I will try to eat super quickly right before the show—a chocolate or drink a cola just like to keep awake, just to have the energy to watch the show—but never during the show.

Can you skip a show without notifying the organizers if you’re going to be late and miss it?

Gvishiani: No, it’s unprofessional for me. Once, I remember I lost my phone and I had been offline for two or three hours, so I could not contact anyone, but I will use all the possible options to notify that I’m not coming.

So the only time it’s okay to not notify is if you’re missing a phone?

Gvishiani: Yes, or dead.

Can you complain about your seat to the fashion show PR?

Yaeger: Yes. I have done that and I’ve always been ashamed of myself. I’ve done it on a couple of occasions, and then you realize what a jerk you seem like. One time at Comme des Garçons, Simone Rocha did not have a seat. And I said, “Simone, I can’t believe you have standing room!” And she looked at me and she said, “I don’t care, I’m rock and roll!” And I thought that was so fabulous.

Gvishiani: No, I never did. Because I think that they know best where to put me.

Is it ever ok to cut the line at a show if you know the PR?

Yaeger: Yeah, I do that. Plus, I’m old. I’m rude and I cut. I don’t wait in line, I go right to the front and that’s what I do. See, I’m not perfect.