Landing on a runway of a different kind, I stumbled off the plane and into Newark Airport. A self-satisfied pigeon strolled past me, welcoming me to the city. The Big Apple awaited me, and the promise of partaking in New York Fashion Week felt like the beginning to a beautiful future. Starry-eyed, I hailed a cab, and my foray into fashion week commenced.

Months ago, attending fashion week was a mere fantasy, but my mentor made it possible. Louisville stylist, event coordinator and fashionista Jo Ross took me under her wing and invited me to accompany her to New York Fashion Week. I worked with Ross as an intern over the summer, and my time with her has been an incredible learning experience; fashion week was the icing on the cake.

My first introduction to New York City was a kaleidoscopic blur of sights, sounds and smells — an overload to the senses. I followed Ross with baited breath, trusting her to guide me through chaos. A fashion week regular, Ross has attended shows since the event’s inception and fondly recounts stories of the Bryant Park days. This year, however, was an entirely different beast than what Ross had previously encountered. With new and fewer sponsors, new management and multiple locations housing the shows, it felt chaotic.

While shuttling to the numerous venues was hectic, seeing the shows made the trouble worthwhile. We attended a gamut of collections ranging from Badgely Mischka to Angel Sanchez; my favorite was Jeremy Scott.

Scott, best known for his Moschino line, opened his spring 2016 show with Gigi Hadid dressed in a mod crop top and high-waisted pencil skirt doused in hues of tangerine and bubblegum. The other models donned clothes in a similar vein. Reminiscent of sixties James Bond flicks, their hair a bouffant mess of bouncy curls, they bobbed down the catwalk. Scott’s designs, a lovely change of pace from the serious, teased for a night on the dance floor and left his audience wishing for more.

On the other end of the spectrum, Naeem Khan gave us classic and intricately gorgeous looks. His line featured bright hues of lilac, fuchsia and daffodil — the garments equal parts Italian socialite and Grace Kelly.

Each collection I had the pleasure of watching possessed some detail to appreciate and admire. While not all the looks were my personal style, I have to respect the hard work, skill and creativity that go into making a successful and cohesive line of garments. Trends on the runway included fringe — no surprise there — big block mixed prints, asymmetric hemlines and clean shapes.

While models strolled down the runways, onlookers gazed ahead. Their expressions ranged from apathy to enchantment and displayed both perfect “prune” pouts and mastered looks of interested disinterest. New York’s streets, while not part of the formal fashion show, became runways for models and bystanders alike, each fashion week attendee attempting to outdress the next.

The week went too fast for me. Before I knew it, I was back at Newark watching the pigeons and boarding my plane, dreaming of fashion week for fall 2016.