Rebecca Minkoff’s Fashion Week Survival Guide: Big Salads, Bone Broth & Coffee

Making it in the fashion industry is already a Herculean feat. But surviving 20 years of New York Fashion Week is another level entirely. This month, Rebecca Minkoff marks the 20th anniversary of her eponymous brand, a label that’s become a staple of the NYFW scene. Her Fashion Week presentations have evolved with trends, technology—in 2022 she did an NFT collection which entirely focused on dressing avatars in the metaverse—and cultural shifts, consistently pushing the boundaries of NYFW expectations.

Minkoff is candid that her success did not occur overnight. Yes, she had those pivotal (and somewhat glamorous) moments, like when actress Jenna Elfman wore one of her t-shirts on The Tonight Show and it blew up, or when The Daily Candy published an article titled “The Catwalk of Shame,” dubbed her signature “Morning After Bag,” turning it into both a fashion statement and feminist icon in one swift move. She said that the article put her bag on the map, and orders came flooding in. But she was also the same woman who started her career in New York City, living in a shoe box, working full-time for designer Craig Taylor, then coming home at night to work on her bags and sell them at consignment shops.

Like many others, her business also suffered during the pandemic. Her team saw a 70% decline in its business as wholesale orders suddenly disappeared. Layoffs, pay cuts, and store closures happened. She ended up selling the brand in 2022 to apparel company Sunrise Brands for a price estimated at between $13 million and $19 million, with Minkoff staying on as Chief Creative Officer, Women’s Wear Daily reported.

In other words, Minkoff, a mother of four, is not slowing down anytime soon. She survived fast fashion, the e-commerce boom, a pandemic, a stint on The Real Housewives of New York, dupe culture, and she’s constantly innovating. Last month it was announced that Rebecca Minkoff will shift from an inventory-based brand to a licensing-driven model. It was also just announced this month that Minkoff launched her first collaboration with Amazon Fashion, a stadium-approved collection.

Most recently, she held an event for the collection for New York Fashion Week with Amazon Fashion, Echo Frames, and Pro Standard, at the WNBA Liberty Game at Barclays Center. “I sort of try to channel Madonna, like she always reinvented herself. So, where is the excitement in the market? Where are things really moving, and how do we plug into that? So women in sports have obviously been a huge movement. I think you're always trying to see what's happening, what's new, where things are going. And then it's not just me, it's obviously a big team of people that are also ideating and helping figure out, how do we make this happen?” she told Food52 over Zoom.

Though NYFW looks a little different each year, Minkoff is working and definitely relies on certain foods to get her through it. It has evolved from greasy comfort food to the cleanest of clean eating in recent years. She also opened up to Food52 about her favorite things to cook when she isn’t putting together a new collection.

What is your food survival guide for New York Fashion Week?

Well I used to do the greasy hamburger french fry with an extra mayo situation, but I always felt so loaded and tired. So then there were many fashion weeks where I did Sakara and that got me through it. This past fashion week, I was eating a very regimented diet due to hormone stuff I'm regulating. So it was a lot of bone broth, a lot of salads. This bar is from a company called Perfect Amino which has a lot of protein. And to be honest, it wasn't enough food. I was starving. I chose to wear a really tight skirt that I powered through, and it helped them through.

What food got you through this NYFW week?

I subsisted on protein bars and coffee, no offense to The Barclay Center, but the food was not anything to write home about. So I had like half a burger there and then when I got home, I made myself a big dinner. I had CSA tortillas with chicken, cabbage, hot sauce and some cheese, and I had three of those. And then I went to bed, because I was like, wow.

How much coffee do you consume during NYFW?

Probably four cups a day. I have Lekanto’s Monk Fruit Sweetened Chocolate Drinking Powder. I like this because it sweetens the coffee [and] makes it thick.

When you aren’t doing NYFW do you have a cooking strategy?

I'm inspired to cook and I just got sent two cook books, and so I was trying to make those meals, but for the most part, the staples we have in the fridge is what I work with. I always do a big salad for my husband and I, or he'll do one, but I'm the better salad maker. There's always some sort of meat we get from Butcher Box. So we'll usually do chicken or hamburger, or my husband makes a really good roast, so we'll do that. And that can turn into, like, tacos and stir fry.

My kids are on the basic plan of gluten free pasta with excessive amounts of parmesan butter, chicken nuggets from Butcher Box or hamburger. Sometimes we can, we can get them to experiment. My 13-year-old's starting to experiment. And my two year old likes salad, believe it or not! But yeah, usually pasta with butter is always a good thing with salads.

Any great food hacks for kids?

I want to honestly tell you that I'm that mom that figures out how to hide veggies, but I’m not so as soon as they get old enough, I'm like, you don't get dessert until you eat a vegetable. That's my hack. And it's just bribery. There’s no ice cream, no treat, no nothing, until fruit or vegetable is consumed.

What’s your favorite big salad to make?

If it’s simple with kale I’ll do it with white vinegar and olive oil, shredded parm, and white beans that I saute with onion. And then if I really want to add in a bit more to it, I'll throw in some roasted sweet potatoes. And that, to me, can be like, you just put chicken or I've been doing a soft boiled egg on that. I don't even feel like I need more than that, if I'm putting the protein with it.

Do you have a favorite salad that you go out for in New York?

The salad at Altro Paradiso. It's the endive, and I want to say it's a goat cheese underneath it, or it's a parm—I love it for the cheese. Then Don Angie has a good salad with cheese [Chrysanthemum Salad.]

Do you have a favorite or maybe craziest NYFW memory that sticks out?

I think the two that stick out are, one that happened during a blizzard and you're just like, cool, I guess we're gonna have a really intimate show for 30 people instead of 500. There was also the time when three models got exclusive deals maybe 15 minutes before they were supposed to show up. So they were pulled, but they were fitted and had outfits, and the agency didn't give a shit. They sent me some random girls that didn't fit the clothes and shoes. We ended up not showing the looks because it didn't make sense. I remember trying to just act angry and stamp my foot, sound like a diva, and it didn't work. The 2020 show was a logistical nightmare.

How do you feel about the brand during 20 and where will Rebecca Minkoff go next?

I thought that by now I'd have my feet up! But it's great! Maybe in 20 more years I’ll have that. I think in five years, knowing that we will be launching over the course of the next, I'd say, two years, so many new categories, what I'm really excited about is to expand to jewelry, expanding fragrance, maybe baby and toddler. I think these are all things that, as you sort of imagine the Rebecca Minkoff world, continue to be areas that we can sort of shape. And so I'm most excited about those categories and where you know the customer you know wants certain things from us that he wishes we would make already. I can't tell you exactly what that looks like three years from now, but hopefully we will have stores again.