Well folks, New York Fashion Week is over and you can go back to dressing in your sweats. No more flashing camera bulbs, and no more paparazzi running behind you to capture your oh-so-stylish outfit. Okay, who am I kidding? That only happens to people like Mira Duma.


Anyhoo, while we didn’t get to watch an actual runway show during NYFW, the Urban Mantra sisters did get a chance to attend a show for an event called the Small Boutique Fashion Week (SBFW). Unlike NYFW with its high-end designers, SBFW is “geared towards small business owners, emerging designers, and novelty designers that are looking to get their start by selling to small boutiques and business shops.”

Upon arriving to the Metropolitan Pavilion in midtown for the runway show on Sept 8, we very quickly realized that this event was on a much humbler scale. No fancy bartender serving complimentary champagne or anything like that. There were 8 designers who presented their collection during the runway show we attended, each with very diverse styles. Some were definitely quite promising and among the ones we liked were Trisha Will with her sleek designs and Terese Sydonna with her bold, eclectic creations. It was fun to see the collections from the various designers, many of whom were presenting at SBFW for the first time.

On a side note, also very entertaining were the models on the runway! There were so many different facial expressions and styles of cat-walking going on there. Some models walked the runway extremely slowly, being outpaced by other models behind them. Others really strutted their stuff, snapping their fingers to the music like they owned the place. Many looked pained or just plain bored. Perhaps they were new models and this was their first show? Regardless, who are we to judge? It takes guts to go up there so kudos to them!