Fashion Week! The clothes! The stars! The hair and makeup! The designers! Ever wonder what it’s like for a fashion designer during the chaos of fashion week? We’re about to find out.  The Sundance channel’s new documentaries ‘The Day Before’ will follow designers right up to the catwalk during fashion week to give a birds eye view on the pressure and excitement that comes along twice a year.

The twice-a-year event is the pinnacle of a designer’s career and I’ve always wished I could climb into their head, just for a day, to see what’s it’s really like behind the “seams.” Runway shows last a mere nine minutes, but they are the most important of the designer’s entire year. In the hours leading up to a runway show, some designers fall into a fury, restitching the stitches, second-guessing the entire collection while others sip Champagne and wait for the seats to fill. Loïc Prigent, director of Marc Jacobs & Louis Vuitton, has created this new series for Sundance which will follow some of the biggest names in the business (Sonia Rykiel, Karl Lagerfeld for Fendi, Proenza Schouler, and Jean Paul Gaultier)  for the 36 hour period leading up to the catwalk. Last-minute model fittings, accessories-delivery drama, and restorative cigarette breaks are all on the menu. According to company reps, “The series covers the global fashion calendar – from Sonia Rykiel’s 40th anniversary celebration in Paris in October to Proenza Schouler in New York in February, Fendi by Karl Lagerfeld in Milan in March, and Jean Paul Gaultier’s haute couture show in Paris in July – capturing designers at this key moment when creativity and business come together. Each house has its own unique energy, mood, character and rhythm – and its colorful moments of panic, last minute inspiration and ego-unleashing.”

The four-part series begins the day before New York Fashion Week in September.