Vogue's Fashion Night Out: Florence

Vogue Magazine was in town a few nights ago, and what a celebration that was.  Imagine yourself walking into an entire city full of people, fashion designers, food, drinks, and tomorrow's new hit clothes.  Vogue traveled to Milan and Rome before Florence, so they got a little taste before we did.

The evening started around 20:00 (08:00 p.m.) where promoters were running around giving out free samples of coffee, coke zero, pamphlets, coupons, discounts, and fun little knick knacks to get you to come into the store.  One the stores REALLY opened up about an hour later, they were suddenly transformed into the world's greatest club. 

Most of the top Italian brands here in Italy had a DJ, flashing lights, dancing, free alcohol (which was usually sponsored by that brand), and even bouncers.  Once inside the club, erhm, retail store, you were greeted by camera's and a bartender ready to give you a taste of their new mix drink.  The purpose of the drink was to keep you inside so you could admire all of the new clothing that was on display and hopefully buy the clothing.  What's crazy is that people WERE actually buying the clothing last night while pushing and shoving through the crowd.   Anything to be the first person with the new pair of jeans, right?

What was interesting, however, was seeing how Italians drank their alcohol.  They are very social drinkers.  Of the 5 major-label stores we visited last night, I saw no drunk people.  Italians do not drink to get drunk, they drink for the enjoyment, company, and social ability of what the alcohol does to them.  It's like coffee here, it's what brings people a little closer together.  That made you feel like your night was just a little bit safer.

Literally, the entire city was lit up with excitement, flashing lights, loud music coming from every store, and people just waiting to see what this Fall, 2012 has to offer with clothing.  Barney Stinson from the hit TV show "How I Met Your Mother" would have been very excited and proud to see Prada's new line-up of clothing.   New European car designs were flashed about as people drooled over the exterior design in addition to just wanting to touch the car(s).

This night was definitely a night that you can never experience in the States.  Oh, and why yes, this was actually a trending style (the mannequin, not me).