DISPATCHES FROM NEW YORK: Karmen Berentsen
Dispatches is a column in the magazine, taking readers behind the scenes to international destinations all around the world with well-known personalities from Denver and beyond. They share personal photos and experiences from their work trips and vacation spots. This month, owner of A Line Boutique, Karmen Berentsen takes us along on to New York Fashion Week.
Name: Karmen Berentsen
Occupation: Owner, A Line Boutiques
Destination: New York City
Dates of trip: Thursday, February 27th through Monday, March 2nd.
Reason for visit: After a successful client trip to Paris Fashion Week last September, we set out to create our second retail experience trip in NYC. Given that a strong majority of our buy takes place at New York market, with many of our “bread and butter” brands being based out of NYC, we were excited to give our clients access to a full roster of runway shows, presentations, and showroom visits as a way to both pull back the curtain on the buying process and expose our ladies to the glamour of NYFW.
Summary of Trip
We hit the ground running on the evening of Thursday the 6th, greeting our clients Cindy Classen and Julie Gordon as we jumped into our car on the way to our trip kickoff. The excitement was high as we all discussed the agenda ahead and pulled up to our first stop, the Aquazzura showroom off of Fifth Avenue. After admiring the gorgeous pieces from the FW20 collection, we popped bubbly and toasted the start to an incredible week with the creative director, Edgardo Osorio, himself. The clients then pulled their top 5 favorite shoes from the collection before we headed off to a celebratory dinner at ABC Kitchen, an A Line favorite.
Day two kicked off with visits to the Citizens of Humanity and Agolde showrooms, where our clients previewed the collection and picked out their choice of pieces, gifted from the designers. We then dropped by the Cinq a Sept presentation, a mini runway show full of bright colors contrasted against androgynous suiting, presenting a strong overtone of female empowerment. After lunch at the Standard Grill, we set off to the Rag & Bone showroom, where we were met with more champagne and got to reunite with A Line alum Lamees Jad who now works for the brand out of NYC. We hitched a ride with the Rag & Bone executive team over to the runway show at the Skylight building, where we mingled with influencers, celebrities, and friends before taking our seats for the incredible production that was the FW20 show.
The weekend was packed with even more back-to-back action — from personal shopping with the designers of Arjé at their NYC apartment to visits to Tibi, Veda, and NSF, and Derek Lam showrooms. We wrapped up Sunday at the Sies Marjan and Jason Wu runway shows, followed by a 12 course meal at the famous Thomas Keller restaurant Per Se.
As our trip was wrapping up, we set off Monday morning for the Jonathan Simkhai runway show followed by a quick stop at the Lela Rose presentation. The night concluded with the electric Proenza Schouler show, in the company of Gigi Hadid, Kaia Gerber, and Anna Wintour, just to name a few. Incredibly wowed by the week, we sat down to our final dinner to discuss our favorite moments of the trip before preparing to say goodbye and leaving Caleb and Emily to finish the week of buying appointments. Far beyond all of the beautiful products, runway productions, and non-stop fashion-goodness, we were reminded constantly of the real value of our trip — the connections and memories made with our clients. We could not be more grateful for the time spent with these two uniquely incredible women who are perfectly representative of the growing A Line tribe and our mission of empowering women through personal style.
With the conclusion of our trip and our return to Denver, we jumped right back into planning mode, with less than two weeks before heading to Paris with six clients! Stay tuned for more news, follow us on Instagram @alineboutique and look out for our next trip recap in the April issue of Cherry Creek Fashion!
Favorite trends spotted on the streets of NYC:
Faux shearling
Men’s suiting for women/androgynous styles
Olive green and checkers
Culottes with tall boots