Lone Wolf Accents debuts at LA Fashion Week! I can’t really even begin to explain what it was like.

On one hand, I was excited and appreciative and totally over the moon jittery and blown away that after only 10 months of designing, I was going to see my line on the catwalk of LA Fashion Week! Wth???

It was absolutely surreal, being behind the scenes with makeup artists, stylists, VIPs and media in private areas of The Standard. “How is this my life?” I asked myself with an incredulously dropped jaw more than once. 

But at the same time, a feeling of calm serenity washed over me. It was like any other job. I knew what I had to do, I had done all I could do ready for it. Preparations were in place, I made as many necklaces as I could, I knew what would look good with what. I felt almost on autopilot as I navigated a sea of backless bathing suits and blinged out bikinis.

It was simultaneously glamour-extraordinaire and very mundane. Four hours of waiting around with my plastic jewelry cases bought from a bead shop downtown. Helping the interns cook quesadillas to pass around to backstagers. Watching Last Call with Carson Daly while waiting for my call. Watching stylists at work with hair curlers and eyelash curlers, straightening irons and straight pins, high heels and high fashion. It reminded me of my old days of readying for vaulting competitions. A lot of “hurry up and wait” and “wait there…NOW HURRY UP”. It wasn’t until I got home tonight and did some research that I realized I had made friends with the Boss from Beauties and The Boss. Guess I need to brush up on my Hollywood Celebrities. Or maybe not. Maybe it’s good going into these things blind, and just being nice and friendly to everyone. All I wanted to do all night was emit good vibes and help everyone out as much as I could. 

And when the moment came for the big reveal, I was so late coming upstairs with the girls that I had a back row seat, way behind a sea of heads and couldn’t see a thing! I had to rely on Matt and Sarah’s Flip videos of the show to see it in action. And I’ve been trolling fashion blogs and models’ Facebooks all day to try and grab as many photos as I can. 

I know I’ve bagged on LA for a long time, and chided its superficiality. But I have to say that Friday night was a surprise for me. Everyone I talked to was incredibly nice and genuine. It took me my surprise, in a very good way. And was also a lesson in learning something about myself. 

Maybe it was my own insecurities being projected onto others, but the last few years when visiting LA, I would always feel like the red-headed younger cousin from the Midwest coming out to a visit. I felt eyed, judged and gossiped about for not wearing the right thing or having the right body. I felt a few years behind the trend.

The more I think about it, that was probably my own vision of myself. As I’ve grown up, and out of years of self loathing and scorn, I appreciate that I was able to comfortably be myself in a room full of people I would probably have been intimidated and terrified to death by even a short year ago. 

I’m overcome with infinite amounts of gratitude for all parties who made it possible for me to be involved, Sal Gutierrez, Amber Jamal, Karina Copado, The Standard, Matt and Sarah for coming to watch (even though I didn’t get to spend much (any) time with you guys - I’m sorry!!), all the models and photographers, my parents for supporting all my dreams (even when I’m sure they knew the silly ones would never amount to anything), all my friends for giving me a reason to move down to LA, and YOU followers for supporting my work and liking photos and for your quality feedback.

I am filled with gratitude, appreciation, love and boundless happiness right now I CAN’T FIT IT ALL INSIDE MY BODY! What an incredible high, and all I want for all of you is to pursue your dreams and passions as HARD as you can. Because if you do that, work feels like play and I swear the money will come. Every day, no matter how hard or toilsome, will get you one step closer to where you want to be, and it will be WORTH it. And I will be the first to tell you how PROUD I am of you for working (playing) hard, and living with integrity in striving for your dream.  

tl; dr: Sappy love fest of appreciation and life lessons. Live your dream. Full photo series here.