Next week marks the beginning of New York Fashion Week. Tons of huge designers are going to be showing their new collections on the runway. New York Fashion Week marks when you start doubting your entire wardrobe and wondering how you can look like one of models prancing down the runway.

It takes a lot of work to look like one of those models, but it’s achievable. After reading these seven tips, your entire campus is going to wonder who that runway model is sitting behind them in English class.

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Here at CollegeCandy we like to consider ourselves quite the fashion go-to girls. I mean, we tell you where to shop, what to buy, and how to wear it. So it’s only right that today, the first day of Mercedes Benz Fall 2011 New York Fashion Week (gah, that’s a mouthful!), we offer you our two cents on what’s to come.

But not so much on the clothes themselves, or even the designers. We’ll leave that to the professionals. Instead we’d rather focus on everything else. So here’s what’s coming your way from the runways of New York over the next 7 days. Well, besides the great clothes, and the good looking guys, and the gorgeous models, that is.

1. The ugliest clothes you’ve ever seen. They’ll be hideous. Unflattering. Out of proportion. They will break every fashion rule that has ever been made. No one will ever wear them. And no one will ever want to. But for the entirety of Fashion Week people will rave about how brilliant the designers are, and how great the clothes look. And sure they will probably inspire some really cute outfits from some less than Fashion Week-worthy designers, but those clothes? The originals? Those won’t be worn again. Not even by Blair Waldorf.

2. “New trends” that were also new when your mom was your age. True story. We don’t realize how quickly trends resurface in fashion but all of these new styles that we’re currently loving were loved a long, long time ago as well. Two weeks ago I was watching Glory Daze and an unsuspecting sorority girl opened the door in an oversized sweater and leggings. If it hadn’t been for the horrible side ponytail I would have thought the show suddenly jumped ahead 20 years.  So all these new trends you’ll see this week that look like they could have come straight out of the ’70s? They did come straight out of the ’70s.

3. Rachel Zoe’s collarbone. And plenty of other people’s collarbones, as well. Skinny arms. Toothpick legs. And lots and lots of teeny, tiny waists. Love it or hate it, Fashion Week is about the skinny people. So be prepared to be shocked into a sugar coma. Because, personally, there’s nothing I want to do more after watching super tall, super thin models walk down a runway than eat lots and lots of ice-cream. Or jump on the treadmill. We’ll see how it goes. To each her own, you know?

4. Some really weird makeup. Smoky eyes below the eye. Shaved eyebrows.  White liner. Bright lips. If anyone rocked these looks to class, or even on the red carpet, people would look at them like, well, like they shaved their eyebrows. But during Fashion Week it’s fabulous. It’s cutting edge. It’s trying something new. It’s treating the models like a canvas, manipulating them to better present the clothes, which, yes, I totally get. I understand the point of it all, but the makeup is still pretty weird.

5. Anna Wintour’s Bob. The editor-in-chief of Vogue. This woman is synonymous with fashion. And with her page boy bob and oversized sunnies. She’ll be there, loving a select few items while also internally tearing apart all the rest. The woman is like a real life Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep’s evil boss to Anne Hathaway’s scared intern). So watch closely to see if she nods or shakes her head. Or better yet, watch to see if she purses her lips. You remember what that means right? Absolute disaster.

Now that sounds like fun.

It was truly an incredible experience. I had the opportunity to both work backstage and watch the shows. I got a truly unique perspective and learned some very interesting things about the goings on of fashion shows. Here are the five biggest things you don’t know about your favorite designers’ biggest events.

1. The models are people too (kinda).
The models actually are, for the most part, friendly. I know, it’s shocking. Some are rude, but generally they’re nice. They also eat. A lot. Before one show, I watched a group of these pin-thin girls eat mountains of Double-Stuf Oreos, gummy worms and cheese. Gross, right? I can’t decide if that makes me hate them more or a little less. At one show I was told there wasn’t enough food backstage. The models threw such a fit about it that the designer ended up ordering boxes of pizza for them. So yes, they eat. And they can read. And yes, they are very, very scary skinny. And a lot of them are super young, even as young as 15 or 16.

2. The hair and makeup is absolutely stunning.
Okay, so I’m a little biased due to my obsession with hair, but the amount of effort poured into each look is incredible. The lead hairstylist shows a whole team what they want to create for the look and their favorite two products to use. Some of the most popular backstage? Redken’s Fabricate 03 Heat Texturizer; Thickening Lotion 06 Body Builder; and their brand-new style connection line, Wool Shake, Matte Sponge and Velvet Gelatine. You’d never think hair is important (it’s the clothes that matter, right?) but it truly complements the clothes and brings the entire show to life.

3. The prep-work vs. actual show time.
PR people and the designers pour everything into Fashion Week (which you might know if you’ve been following Kell on Earth). In the industry, it’s the most important time of the year. I cannot stress enough how crazy people get over this event. Full blown, Britney 2008 cray-cray. You know how accountants have a busy season? Well, this is our busy season. Only it’s with sequins and press releases instead of Excel spreadsheets and audits. Months go into designing and creating the clothes for these shows, setting up the venue, picking the perfect stylists, finding models, inviting celebs and so on and so on. And the end result? About a 10-15 minute show.

4. Nothing is ever on time. Ever.
People are shocked if a show is running on time. If it’s not the set, it’s the music. If the hair’s done, the make up isn’t. If everything is running smoothly, then rehearsal inevitably cuts into the actual show time. Marc Jacobs used to be notorious for always running behind, but these past few years he’s been the timeliest of all. He also took an nontraditional route with…

5. The celebrities.
Marc Jacobs didn’t let them into his show because he claimed they were “boring” and distracted from the clothes. And he’s right. Well, about the second part. I could hardly call my experience sitting mere feet away from my hero, Christina Hendricks, at Badegly Mischka “boring.” But it was distracting! I mean, come on, how can you focus on the clothes when Anna Wintour’s daughter is sitting RIGHT THERE and you’re just wondering what kind of badass life she lives and then, boom, before you know it, you’ve missed the entire evening wear line.

Although the company has the word “ugly” in its title, models who represent Ugly New York are not unattractive, they’re just different than what one would normally expect a model to look like. Weird physical quirks are fine as long as the person has that certain style and confidence needed to be a model.

The company represents everyday people – businessmen, computer geeks, anyone who makes you turn your head and think “Wow he/she has something special about him/her”. Ugly New York gives people who never even considered the opportunity to model a chance to strut their stuff.

After viewing the talent on their site, it’s easy to tell that the company does represent some “classic” models. However, they also have their fair share of hairy bikers, aging women and quirky 20 and 30 somethings.

Ugly NY is inspirational in that it furthers the message that a person doesn’t need to look any certain way to be considered beautiful. A lot of the models for Ugly New York are even more attractive than your average runway model. The only thing I’d like to see changed is the name of the company. While its clever, it doesn’t accurately represent its models. Just because one girl has a lot of freckles and another has droopy eyelids doesn’t mean that they’re ugly. It just means they’re unique, which is what I think the agency has set out to convey in the first place.

Either way, let’s give it up for a company who’s not completely buying into the alien-model trend that’s been plaging the industry for, like, ever.