Brands now put a dollar figure on a front-row seat. How a Manila blogger, two rival fashion-week regulars, and a tennis star each got theirs. Alex Eala sat front row three times in one week at New York Fashion Week. The first was Tory Burch, days after her US Open run ended. Next came Michael Kors at the Museum of Modern Art, where she was seated beside Anna Wintour, the longtime Vogue editor who had praised her interest in fashion a month earlier. The third was Calvin Klein, where she sat in a white button-down and off-white slacks next to actress Sadie Sink and singer Tate McRae. A week later came the number. Karla Otto, the brand-building agency, cited figures from the influencer analytics platform Lefty putting Eala’s presence at the Calvin Klein show at $502,000 in earned media value for the brand. That’s a strange price to put on a 21-year-old in a chair, and a fairly honest one about what the front row has turned into. Insiders still watch the clothes from...
