Our exclusive coverage of New York Fashion Week kicks off, and our correspondent, star photographer & blogger, Candice Lake drops us a line with all the mayhem of her first day in the Big Apple!

New York Fashion Week - Day 1.

Drama drama drama! Oh I know that this is a rather dramatic way to introduce myself, although this IS New York fashion week and dramas are a plenty!

So, Mercedes Benz Fashion Week started today and for some reason back in August when I was lying on the beach in France, this fashion week seemed about 10 million years away. So much so that I thought it would be a great idea to fly into NYC, shoot a 24-page advertising campaign the day before, (yes in one day shoot 24 pictures!!) and then have my first exhibition in NYC the next evening! Yes, it is true, I may be a little insane.

Armed with every summer dress that I own and lots of summer hats, we arrived into New York City on a hot 30 degree day (an amazing change from London's constant drizzle!). I threw on my most summery of outfits, grabbed a bike and set off to find the perfect NYC location for my shoot. Although not before first stopping at my favourite breakfast haunt, Cafe Gitane. I chained my bike up outside (nothing makes you feel more like a New Yorker than chaining your bike up to a tree) and ordered my favourite - Vegemite and Avocado on toast (still a Vegemite kid at heart!).

(My friend Sonny shooting me shooting!)

So by the end of day 1 in NY, all was going to plan. I had found the perfect, quintessentially NYC, locations for the shoot, grabbed my best friends Gemma and Narelle for the adventure, did the obligatory spot of shopping uptown and of course popped into the Guggenheim museum for a quick art fix.

UNTIL OUT OF NOWHERE... RAIN. I don't just mean a light shower, I mean the skies literally opened up with a torrential downpour of rain that made New Yorkers proclaim that it was worse than the hurricane that shut down the entire city last weekend. All the summery locations I had found the day before had turned into flood zones - literally!

After an emergency 10pm call to my trusty assistant Olympia, I was kitted up with a raincoat and gumboots, and even my camera got it's very own raincoat - not very fashion! We started the shoot at 4:30am (I wish I was exaggerating!) and I arrived to the 30 people in the crew all smiling and putting on their best "this is all going to be all okay face" as they handed me lots of coffee and croissants as the RV van floated down the street.

Well, it seems when there's a will theres a way! The first model of the day was the amazing Nicole, aka Miss Gary Pepper Vintage (blogger), who made the whole process seamless because she is perfection personified!

For 15 hours we stood under umbrellas, under trees, anywhere to get cover, but all the models worked it.

Here I am doing my signature photography yoga whilst shooting the gorgeous Anouk Colantoni downtown NYC.

And here I'm literally getting the models to stop traffic on 5th Avenue and trying not run into the video crew holding sound booms!

Here I am getting interviewed after the shoot. Thankfully the hairstylist tamed my frizz and the makeup artist worked her magic on me in the street with a pop of pink lips! All in all an amazing day with an incredible crew!

As I sit here writing this at 6am, it is pouring with rain still outside and it's the official 1st day of fashion week- so I am dancing to the rain gods, hoping all goes to plan and it stops raining... and also dancing to the goodluck gods that my exhibition is a success tonight! 

I have a few fail safe secrets to get through fashion week madness:

1. Don't drink champagne before dark (which is a rule I have already broken!).
2. Try and get 4 hours of sleep a night.
3. Take vitamins - I brought so many vitamins with me to NY that my carry on luggage got searched in customs... I'm like a walking pharmacy!
4. Always make sure to at least eat breakfast. And make time to dance the night away with friends at least once... My winning combination!

Now for tonight - it is my debut NYC exhibition!!!

I am SO nervous and so excited and have no idea what I am going to wear! I can't wait to show you photos!

x Candice Lake

Keep checking back to the blog as Candice continues her coverage of all the action at New York Fashion Week! And make sure you visit Candice's website here!