4 Ways to Plan for Fashion Week on the Cheap, Girl

The Council of Fashion Designers of America, also known as the CFDA, launched a redesign of their website on Thursday, and no, you still can't see it. But because I love all of the free things and research, I've gathered four ways you can see what the CFDA talks about on their exclusive site, without going to their exclusive site.

The new website includes the beloved CFDA calendar. This is big news because, until now, the calendar was only available as a hard-copy printout with the notable red cover or as a downloadable PDF. Ruth Finley founded the calendar in 1941, when there were only about 60 to 70 fashion shows. Today, the calendar has the dates of hundreds of shows internationally. Think Miranda Priestly's beloved fashion book in The Devil Wears Prada. The CFDA calendar may be a bit more serious than that.

The calendar reportedly works much like a Google Calendar. It will send you alerts, you can include your own personal schedule into the calendar and search for specific events. That's right, you can Ctrl + F until you find the Alexander Wang show. The calendar inspired more subscriptions to the CFDA: Currently, you can subscribe fro $150 for just fashion week or $550 for a year, up from last year's $495. Until the CFDA releases an app, which is in the works, the only way to view the calendar is on the site.

Unfortunately for me, there's no way I'll be able to afford that. Not even in the foreseeable future. But I need to know where these shows are and who releases a line and when. I've compiled a list of ways we can keep up with the CFDA until we can afford to be let in.

1. Designer's sites

It's tedious, but designer's actually do a really good job of keeping up their blogs. They'll post when (and sometimes where!) their shows are. It just takes a little digging to find your favorite designers.

2. Vogue

Vogue, and other high-fashion magazines, do a pretty great job of leaving little snippets in their longer features with designers or models of when shows will be. Whether it's intentional or not, I sure appreciate it.

3. The Fashion Times

The Fashion Times is an amazing site I learned to refresh every 5 seconds during fashion week. They're on top of it. But I learned they also let you know when shows are happening and when designers are releasing a new ad/campaign/line/bowel movement. I'm convinced they have 1:1 reporter to designer ratio, just so they can stay in the know.

4. Social Media

Designers do have apps, but they're also all over social media. In the months before fashion week, I have been guilty of following more and more fashion designers and fashion editors just to see where they're going or how they're planning for a certain event. Thanks to Instagram upgrading to videos last year, it's also a free look inside the fashion shows.

Images: Getty; Giphy (4)