NEW YORK (AP) — I came to New York for my first Fashion Week after years of anticipation. OK, decades.

So when I entered the Lincoln Center tents, I may have been a wee bit wide-eyed. These were the mythic tents where glamour happens.

I was awed by the sheer magnitude of work that goes into putting on back-to-back shows from early morning until nighttime. The experience can be overwhelming — and not just for me.

Shantel Van Santeen of “One Tree Hill” said she started tearing up when she first came to Fashion Week.

“My publicist was like ‘What is wrong with you?’ and I said ‘I used to work at Olive Garden. I used to be the girl that sat behind the desk at 24-hour fitness and I am sitting here front row at Diane Von Furstenburg,’” she said.

It seems everyone remembers their first.

Designer Michael Angel had a full house for his spring 2011 collection, but he remembers his first show in 2007, when he jokingly says about 50 people showed up.

“It was nerve wracking because I didn’t know what to expect and you wanted everything to be perfect,” he said.

Simon Doonan, creative director at Barney’s New York, said his first show was in 1985.

“It was really fun and Andy Warhol was there. It was a super groovy swinging party and Marc Jacobs was probably there. I was probably drunk, so I wasn’t feeling anything,” he said.

For others, the shows themselves were the drug. Marie Claire editor-in-chief Joanna Coles said her first fashion week was an eye-opening experience.

“I suddenly realized there was this extraordinary world of hyper-creative and very commercial people and this was a world I wanted to know much more about,” she said.

As a journalist, what was eye-opening for me was how ready to talk these fabled Fashion Week staples were. I think I may have interviewed almost the entire cast of “Gossip Girl,” and I sat just a few feet away from Kanye West and actress Julianne Moore.

Everyone was happy to talk — but not everyone was nice.

When I asked Doonan if more moderately priced stores like H&M and Forever 21 were affecting business, he praised the spread of fashion to those less wealthy. Then the zinger came.

“Look how groovy you look. I am sure you are not wealthy or you wouldn’t be sticking that thing in my face,” he said of my digital recorder.

And there were characters, of course. One day, a woman wearing a black dress came to a show playing with a doll in a matching outfit. She walked by me, looked me straight in the eye and petted the doll.

And of course no fashion experience is complete without an Anna Wintour sighting. The Vogue editor-in-chief wore a Lanvin dress, holding her signature black sunglasses. Not a strand of hair was out of place from her signature bob.

And — surprise, surprise — she was happy to talk. When I asked her how it feels to be the face of New York fashion, she smiled and then responded: “There’s many different faces to fashion.”

I came to the shows expecting to be snubbed by the gorgeous and glamorous because this was my first time in their world, but what I found surprised me. True style doesn’t come with a price tag because I saw women with expensive clothes who looked like they just rolled out of bed.

True style comes with being true to yourself, whatever that means to you.