The Most Heart-Stoppingly Pretty Pictures Of Fashion Week

To assume that Fashion Week is just about the clothes wouldn’t be inaccurate, per se. But, it also doesn’t really capture why we talk about the twice-yearly event with such enthusiasm (or exhaustion), why attendees flood venues, or why Instagram hashtags get filled with images captured from every possible angle. Fashion Week is a grand spectacle and, as this collection of pictures proves, a really beautiful one.

While the clothing and trends inspire much of our conversations around the shows, the images ahead are just as inspiring — and they do the talking for us. They're the striking moments when a model steps square into the perfect frame of light, the close-up details of a garment that might have been missed on first glance, and the candid backstage snaps that are usually only seen by the talent themselves. Taken together, they tell the story of what makes a fashion show so exciting to begin with. Perhaps we can't recreate the exact feeling of what it's like being a part of the action, but consider the slides ahead a very close second.