What fashionista.com does not know is the nuance that comes with seating a front row.

I just was reading through the list on fashionista.com about what fashion brands will pay to sit front row during New York Fashion Week. What a crock of hooey. Let me start by saying that part of my business is orchestrating front row talent for assorted companies and none of what they are reporting is true. What I think fashionista.com did was call a slew of garden variety talent agents and received generic quotes. One thing you learn about casting a front row is…never call agents. They love throwing out ridiculous nilly-willy high prices. And that does not even get you anywhere near guaranteeing the talent. Booking talent for front row or any other event or project is not as cut and dry as buying something online. There is no Celebrity Ebay. Sure, people think we have celebrities chilling on ice, that you crack them off one by one when you need to spice up an event, or dazzle the press. But it is a far more complicated process, one that takes years of cultivating relationships. There is much navigating the waters of publicists with agendas, managers with different agendas and the talent, who usually are the nicest people, but the handlers make you think otherwise. Stressful? Sure. What isn’t during Fashion Week?

Does fashionista.com no longer consider Madonna a celebrity?

And as for Marc Jacobs “banning” celebrities from his front row. Is Madonna no longer a celebrity? She was there, with her twinkie in tow. And Perez Hilton surely considers himself a celebrity and he was there as well. Look, don’t take it out on me. If the press would commit to attending shows without a friggen tip sheet, then maybe the crush of celebrity might not be in such high demand. If the press covered the designers for the actual collection, then we’d be in a different game. But we’re not Blanche, we’re not. Yes, talent is a high stakes game. But the economy crashed, remember? And to throw out those numbers like 100 grand for Rihanna and 80 grand for Mary Kate and Ashley Olson is silly. I mean…get a grip. Who on Earth would pay the Olson Twins anything when they have two collections showing at Fashion Week? It is utter nonsense.