The subway is the new runway.
As fashionistas from around the world flock to Manhattan for New York Fashion Week, many are forced to slum it on the subway to get from show to show.
But they’re surprisingly not fearful of mixing grit in with their glam.
“It’s much faster and really convenient,” 24-year-old Kristina Dem told The Post. “There’s so much traffic in New York, and to commute somewhere by Uber, it’s going to take forever.”
For many, swiping is simply the best way to go.
You could call it “Project Subway.”
Forget the days of town cars and an abundance of taxi drivers. Ubers are expensive. Cabs are few and far between. Gridlock is terrible. Events are far-flung across the city.
And for many fashionistas, NYFW involves multiple stops home for costume changes, so convenience and cost matter.
That’s why Chicago-based content creator besties Kristina Dem and Ioannis Adamopoulos were sure to book a hotel room just a short strut from an F train stop.
“It’s the fastest way,” Adamopoulos, 22, said, noting that the besties swapped their stitches every few hours while running between shows and pop-up events.
“Especially with venues being all over New York, we need to make sure that we have time for a change, or to make sure that we have time to make it from one point to another,” Adamopoulos added.
Of course, for most New Yorkers, heading underground in couture is nothing new.
In fact, many feel the pull of the subway car catwalk.
“I love taking the subway and showing off my pieces,” 24-year-old PR consultant Nick Portello told The Post, of traversing the trains in his own original designs. “It’s kinda like Comic-Con for me.”
He has been attending fashion week for several years and takes the subterranean route partly out of necessity.
“I’m buying on a budget, so I can’t Uber everywhere,” Portello said.
But his subway style has become bolder every season.
“Every year, I get a bit more out there,” he declared. While he tries to protect his looks, Portello knows some omnipresent NYC dirt and grime is inevitable.
“Honestly, it’s worth it,” he said.
Besides, city residents on the subway know — if they see something, they’ll say something.
Virginia resident Ja’celyn Barnett, 24, was told she was beautiful by a stranger as she posed on the 2nd Ave platform on her way to a show; using the subway was her own runway.
“New Yorkers are very open and they like to communicate their feelings, so they always like to tell you what’s on their mind,” German designer Anastasia Mikusova, 21, told The Post at the Delancey and Essex streets MTA stop while decked out in a white, feather-forward frock with leggings tailored to channel Western chaps.
“People give us compliments. They talk to us. So it’s a nice atmosphere,” said her 26-year-old companion, Maurice Demir, who completed his ensemble with a midnight-black cowboy hat emblazoned with the New York Yankees’ logo — one of the many hats he creates and sells.
And while they might look a bit kooky, their fellow subway riders — of all ages — love it.
As the design duo stood in the station on Friday afternoon, elementary schoolers gawked at them, and another passerby, a blushing teenage boy, looked on until he worked up the courage to ask the two for a photo.
“It’s just so New York,” an agreeable Mikusova gushed.
And while subway crime may seem to steal headlines on a daily basis, local fashionistas are not concerned enough to change their ways.
Lo Hendrix, 32, admitted that the subway “can be a little scary,” but only mentioned the fear of dirtying her all white outfit.
Overall, she claimed taking the trains are “just easier and more fun” than jumping into a car alone.
“It kind of gets you in, like, the New York Fashion Week mood to actually, like, do the full New York thing,” Hoboken resident Hendrix told The Post.
“It just romanticizes it a little bit more to just take the subway.”
New York native Kristin Bateman takes a mix of Ubers and subway trains during Fashion Week, admitting that some of her outfits are a bit impractical for a train ride or a walk to and from a station.
She’s used to getting some looks in her wild outfits — but she doesn’t mind.
“There’s always going to be people who are reacting to you,” she said. “But I feel like it’s the best city in the world to dress up on public transportation.”
David Ross Lawn, 33, agrees.
“I think my whimsical style is great here on the subway,” the Asbury Park resident said.
“No one says anything. Everyone is just like doing their own thing. Whereas back where I’m from in Scotland, if I wore something like this today, people would throw things at me, like literally throw things. So it’s more fun here.”
He knows some people don’t love his looks — but he’d take chuckles over physical abuse.
“Sometimes people will take pictures of me where they don’t like what I’m wearing, but honestly, all press is good press,” the content creator said.
Jared Muros, 22, also usually takes the subway in his eye-catching fits when visiting the city from Los Angeles.
“I love being able to go outside, show my outfits, and talk to people,” the West Coaster said. “I get to meet new people and just have fun with it.
“I feel like in LA, I can’t really do that.”
But others don’t want to be social on the subway. Rather, they appreciate the fact that no one seems phased by anything.
New Yorkers, it seems, have seen it all.
Demi Diamandis, 33, didn’t think twice about walking onto the subway platform in her vintage Chanel ballet flats and classic quilted purse. The night before, she’d even worn a pink tulle gown that made her look like a loofah and high heels on the train — while seven months pregnant.
“Nobody really cares if anything,” Diamandis said. “That’s what’s great about New York. You can do anything. I just literally changed on the street right over here and nobody was bothered.
“So that’s like the nice thing — you can just do whatever, and everyone’s just focused on themselves.”
Of course, there still are some boujee beauties who refuse to submit their designer- and custom-made threads to the underground tunnels.
Jade Sykes, 28, wouldn’t dream of stepping into the subway in her bespoke, pink frilly heels.
“F–k no,” she boldly told The Post when asked if she’d tripped with the MTA to the Advisory show in Chelsea on Friday.
“We don’t take the subway,” explained her friend Nia Herron, 31, who was decked out in the brand’s threads. “We believe in paying for better. And it might cost you more, but it’ll be worth it.”
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