When it comes to Fashion Week, I'm over the too-cool-for-school runway experience with loud music in a raw space that's inconvenient for everyone.
I haven't been to Berlin Fashion Week before, but it's really on the up. Being an artist as well as a model, I know that the art world is booming here, so it makes sense that fashion would feel that effect, too.
I'm honored and thankful to be partnering with the prestigious CFDA as one of the men's wear ambassadors for fashion week. My interest in fashion is only matched by my love for music, and I'm blessed to be given an opportunity to learn about some of my favorite designers from a firsthand look at their latest collections.
I'm 19 now, and I go to The New School in New York, where I study Criminal Psychology. My first week of second semester was during Fashion Week when my first editorials in 'CR Fashion Book' and 'Sports Illustrated' came out. It was crazy!
Modeling for a year taught me a lot. I got very involved in the fashion industry and met a bunch of people who I admired.
I like the ritual, the liturgy of a well-crafted, emotional fashion show. I will never be jaded with this side of fashion. The catwalk is pure anthropology, something like an esoteric encrypted parade. It can totally be replaced but it will be missed.
The New York fashion scene is crazy, madness, but I love the energy.
When I was going to Paris for Paris Fashion Week, I'd often walk down the street and go into all the different shops that we didn't necessarily have in the U.K., and Maje was definitely one of the ones that stood out for me.
I can never see fashion models, lean angular cheeks, strutting hips and blooming hair, without thinking of the skulls at the catacombs in Lima, Peru.
The first time I ever came to fashion week, everyone was wearing heels.
For me, fashion begins in New York.
When I went to Fashion Week, I was very disappointed by how few women of color were in those shows. I do speak to the younger girls, and I hear them when they say they're not getting the big contracts or into the big shows.
While choosing a fashion show, I take into consideration the designer and the collection. Then only I said yes to do a show.
Right now I'd say my favorite fashion designer is Zac Posen.
The bit that I've always loved about modeling is show season: the hype, the chaos, the calm just before you walk out. It's your moment - especially when there's no one before you.
I love Fall Fashion Week because it means lots of layering, long sweaters and vintage coats.
Fashion Week is so important for designers.
My style has definitely grown since moving to New York and working on 'Gossip Girl.' I'm more aware of a lot of designers and I'm more aware of fashion.
I try to be extra creative with the colors and textures I wear during fashion week. It's not for street style, though; I just like dressing sometimes.
Fashion designers seem the busiest people on the planet.
Fashion week is not an episode of 'Girls' or 'Friends,' where I'm OK that there is not a black person in sight because I honestly believe these characters don't come into contact with - therefore don't have - any black friends. No, in the case of Fashion week, it feels wrong.
One of my dreams is to walk down the runway during Fashion Week!
London Fashion Week is so different from any of the others. Compared to the strictness in New York, London seems freer from commercial constraints. Truer to the process, to street style, to a sense of humour.
I'm embracing what I have. I'm a curvier bombshell with big boobs. I'm not high-fashion. I don't do runway. You won't see me at Fashion Week.
I'm a London girl, so I grew up on Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood... Dior, Chanel, the usual suspects.
