March 3rd found us, The Chics, in downtown San Francisco, at EXPRESS, for the Kate Upton Spring Fling Shopping Event. A Pile of Chic was invited to the EXPRESS launch party of their spring collection and their Brand Ambassador, Kate Upton herself, was making an appearance. Yes, THE Kate Upton, the supermodel-actress-larger-than-life uber human and icon herself! I knew this wouldn’t be any low-key, ordinary fashion event, and expected it to be the memorable, hot ticket fashion event that it indeed turned out to be.
The event was pretty chill and almost everyone I ran into wanted an answer to the burning question of the night, “where was Kate?” Our EXPRESS PR liaison informed me that Kate would arrive late due to an EXPRESS twittercast she was doing in a private area within the building.
When Kate emerged to claim the spotlight, it was obvious. Everyone swarmed around her like bees to honey. And, let me tell ya, those bees weren’t budging an inch! Wherever Kate moved to, the crowd moved with her in unison. Mere minutes after arriving at the event, she was guided towards the EXPRESS backdrop to do mini interviews with the media.
Our interview was slated for 7:30 pm and I was nervous! For one thing, I was bound to a pre-approved, strictly (and I mean strictly) EXPRESS-related-and-EXPRESS-only list of questions and I was trying to memorize them because I didn’t want to stray from the questions! And to top things off, I kept getting texts from our videographer who didn’t know where EXPRESS was, so I was trying my best to text him directions as I juggled my nerves and my memorization objectives with the texting-direction-giving task at hand.
7:20 pm arrived and yet our videographer hadn’t. Kate was running ahead of schedule and so our turn was up! We couldn’t push out the time of the interview and were hurriedly pulled to the front of the eager, Kate-hungry crowd to meet the woman of the hour. My Partner-in-Chic, Leila Radan, being the resourceful, dynamic woman that she is, pulled out her iPhone and started recording the interview! Come rain or come shine, footage of Kate was a MUST!
The event was amazing. Kate Upton is an absolutely gorgeous woman. She’s well poised, engaging, intelligent, inspiring and only 22 years old! What she has accomplished in fashion and film in such a short amount of time is truly impressive. My favorite memory of the night is her kindness and grace, reflective in her having been so accommodating with allowing us to take several selfies with her and our group of friends smack dab in the middle of her press junket. In one of the pictures, everyone’s gaze is misdirected away from the lens. Not Kate’s. Kate’s gaze is aimed straight ahead at the camera along with an intense and beautiful smile. That’s why she’s the Supermodel.
Interview Disclaimer: The interview occurred against the very noisy backdrop of the gathered crowd, the very loud music, of people talking… Leila’s iPhone perfectly captured it ALL and, my, was that crowd loud! Leila transcribed everything I said and, fortunately for us all, Kate was loud and clear! So, tune out any and all side conversations, tune in to Kate, and enjoy!
A Pile Of Chic 