ODE TO 2013


Written by Walter Grio

Before this past fashion week season in New York, I told several people that I was finished with fashion week and probably wouldn’t go back. This was my 10th fashion week overall including Paris, Berlin, Miami, and New York. And not trying to sound facetious, quite frankly, I was over it. All the fashion weeks blended together and I couldn’t decipher between seasons anymore. The sounds and the sight and the smell as I walked inside the tents of Lincoln Center made me cringe. In truth, a part of me felt that I’ve taken fashiontographer as far as I could. Was this really all fashiontographer could do? Given that this wasn’t my full time job, I felt that I couldn’t do much more to improve it. I wasn’t sure how to take it to the next level. And in some strange way, I felt that it was not successful.

That said, ironically, this past fashion week in New York ended up being one of my favorite fashion weeks of all time. And I must thank my dear friend and fashion editor, Lais Lacher. This past season, in my opinion, she helped catapult fashiontographer to that “next” level with the type of invitations we received. I even showed my surprise when they would find my name on the “list”. Are you Walter Grio? Yes, that’s me! I think so!

Between seeing and photographing Coco Rocha who is my all time favorite model — to all the backstage access fashiontographer received including Zac Posen, Alice + Olivia, and Carolina Herrera — it felt like it was my first time again at New York Fashion Week. I also had a chance to say hello to top models Karlie Kloss and Lindsey Wixson, who did an impromptu beauty photoshoot with me before Zac Posen’s show.

Thanks to Sara Kerens, we were also invited to Christian Siriano’s afterparty. I was so exhausted by the third day that Lais and I decided to skip a PR party scheduled at 10pm. We ended up turning Alice + Olivia’s presentation at 6pm into our own afterparty. In our defense, that presentation had some pretty awesome cocktails. As if that wasn’t enough, thanks to Elyse Moody, we also had an opportunity to have lunch inside ELLE magazine’s building — as well as take a tour of the office. Needless to say, it was spectacular. When you include our now traditional trip to American Ballet Theatre and meeting the 2nd recipient of the Shoot for Change Scholarship as well as inviting the 1st recipient to more fashion shows — this was truly one of my more memorable fashion weeks.

Without doubt, 2013 has been one of the amazing years for me personally as well as professionally. Between reaching nearly 500,000 Facebook followers to meeting Zuhair Murad and Coco Rocha, and photographing the President and the First Lady dance at the Inaugural Ball, this was truly one of the best years. And on a personal standpoint, I couldn’t be happier.

While I’m still not quite sure what to think of it all, I learned one important thing.

I think with anything in life, you can either stand pat and keep plugging along or you can strive to reach a new level. The challenge though is that if you are striving to get better, it gets tougher and tougher as you move up. While it may seem like we’re all trying to achieve our goals, in truth, there is no “Superbowl championship” when it comes to life. But success doesn’t have to be defined by that. Success can simply be defined by doing what you love.


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