I am not really a brave person. Soldiers and firefighters and schoolteachers and parents of newborns are brave. I freak out at needles. I hate loud, scary sounds. I'd throw up within the first five minutes of "Final Destination." Crowds? No way. Change? Please, no. But when it comes to fast fashion I am an armed war horse. Which is why I rolled up my sleeves (figuratively—I was wearing a tank) took a few cleansing breaths, and went into the belly of one of New York's Fashion's Night Out biggest beasts: Missoni For Target's pop-up store in Times Square.
So, you know how Times Square is usually a zoo where the animals are human beings acting like animals, and it's just SO upsettingly sticky and chaotic, and there's always a mussed-up guy dressed in an off-brand Elmo costume? The scene on 42nd Street swarming the Bryant Park pop-up was exactly that. (I even saw the Elmo guy, of course.) The line just to get into the pop-up and access the long-awaited, much-ballyhooed 400-piece Missoni For Target collection and grab $39.99 tea sets, bath towels for $12.99, and OH, the ballet flats was like McQueen long. It stretched from Sixth Avenue to Broadway, and then I lost sight of where it ended (if it ended) south of 41st Street. People may have been lined up down to Coney Island for all I knew. Target-ready shoppers as far as the eye could see.
When I previously arranged with one of the extremely helpful PRs running the event to come early to take photos of the pop-up, she was graciously accommodating yet issued only this caveat: "I'm concerned for your safety." But I'm serious about Target. (I've been known to visit the Virginia Beach Target East location twice a day when I visit my parents back home). I still remember my first Target GO International purchase (the Proenza Schouler palm-print gauze dress, April 2007, Saint Petersburg, Florida). And I AM FEARLESS ABOUT FASHION.
So I went in.
