The Black Market For Fashion Week Invitations

Just $1600 on Craigslist!

It is widely accepted that you can pretty much find anything you might want on Craigslist, particularly in New York City (even a baby, upsettingly enough) — and that includes (exorbitantly priced!) tickets to fashion shows.

Neilson Barnard / Getty Images

New York Fashion Week, though hordes of photographers and pageantry can suggest otherwise, is an industry event. That means tickets to runway shows go to industry people — buyers, stylists, editors, writers, bloggers, and everything in between. (And to celebrities). All these tickets are given out at no cost — and selling them on a secondary market isn't too common.

As the fashion PR maven Alison Brod put it to The New York Daily News last year: "It is truly the one event that ticket brokers haven't gotten to."

Lucas Jackson / Reuters

I asked a few fashion bloggers and editors if, anecdotally, they'd ever heard of people selling tickets to fashion shows. None had.

But take a look on Craigslist, and plenty of tickets are for sale. For a whole lot of money!

$1600!

One seller is offering tickets at $500 a pop, to the lesser-known Nolcha Fashion Week, which features designers you probably haven't even heard of.

At the shows, seats are assigned, and there are a bunch of politics surrounding what row you're in. Curiously, none of the Craigslist postings mention seating assignments.

In other words, you'd probably be spending a few hundred dollars to stand in the back row.

Worth noting: American Express has a "skybox" at Lincoln Center (Fashion Week headquarters) where you can spend $150 to $250 to see shows.

Drew / AP

You do need a gold card, at least.

I emailed a bunch of the sellers to ask who they were, how they got their tickets, and how they came up with their prices.

But none responded.

Surprise, surprise.