Another day, another three nails broken – no one said fashion was glamorous, at least from my side of the fence. Rain and wind lashed Sydney this morning which I am sure caused lots of fashion disasters, and we elected to sleep in and rest up for another day on the fashion floor. But as per usual, dramas ensued and in our case occurred before we even got to work! Leaving Circular Quay train station, the ticket machine ate my weekly train pass and when the employee opened the machine, the ticket was gone. Miss J and I were quite sure the girl ahead of us had simply picked up my ticket (I like to believe this was an accident) and told the gentleman from the train network we were from Melbourne and just here for the week. Lovely guy went and spoke to a supervisor and badda bing badda boom, I had a replacement ticket. Many, many thanks to Mark and George at Metro, Circular Quay for making my week.
And so onto work, which of course we were now late for. Volunteers had already been allocated to Cargo and Opt so I was sent to Opt to make up numbers. It was organised chaos. Sort of. The Ready to Wear show was not far away and featured five designers, all of whom had gift bags in various states of packing. Then they needed to fit five gift bags on each chair. There were volunteers everywhere, photographers, PR people and people who generally just thought they were important. I felt like a three hundredth wheel. It wasn’t long before I got sent downstairs to Cargo to make up numbers there – a sigh of relief for me because it seemed the Opt was way beyond my level of comprehension!
Cargo was setting up for the first afternoon show, Phos Phoro, and there wasn’t too much to do to start off, some general bag packing and laying out. As the morning shift of volunteers filed out looking exhausted, Chip informed us that all three afternoon shows had major layout changes and who was excited? Phos Phoro had flowers on their seats and an impressive front row featuring blogger Susie Bubble but overall the show was actually quite empty compared to the sardine like squashing at other shows. The models wore peep toe brogue type shoes with fringing, an interesting change from sky high heels. Samantha Harris walked in the show, wearing an orange red pant suit, and looked amazing. She is also featured on the cover of this months Vogue.
As soon as the show was complete, we cleared the programs and prepared for the mammoth task of setting the room for Jayson Brunsdon. A snake like configuration was called for, requiring new lighting schemes and the addition of carpet through the walkways. The carpet was white so was then covered in black plastic (bringing back memories of the LMFF fittings) as we laid out hundreds of gift bags and programs. The programs featured an image drawn by the designer himself and I managed to snag one at the end of the show – it is gorgeous! While the gift bags, lighting and carpet laying went on around me, several volunteers spent nearly an hour standing against a wall. They should have the Survivor contestants do this – my legs and feet had had enough! Jayson Brunsdon was packed to the rafters and then some. People were in every nook and cranny – one of the only shows I actually wanted to see and I was going to be stationed near the entry! But not this fashionista. I snuck into the corporate area where the stairway was empty and watched from above, where no photos would work but at least I could see. Even after being told that the area was for corporates only, my desire to see the show won out and I stayed. Beautiful 50s dresses and soft pastel colours graced the runway, adorable frocks and MadMen inspired circle skirts. It was love at first sight.
Clearing the room after this one was epic and as the carpet was pulled up and chairs pushed and pulled into a new position, I had the moment I have most fashion weeks where I wonder if this is for me. More bag packing came after this, more standing around waiting for jobs to be handed out, more ’organised chaos’. Karla Spetic’s staff placed name cards on every seat, gift bags for VIPs and different bags for the rest, we renumbered the room and prepared for it all to start again – show number 9 for me for the week. The range (from my terrible vantage point sitting on the stair next to the screen) reinforced the country theme of the week and was very popular with the punters. By this time though I think I was over the day and my favourite part of this collection was actually the hair extensions – I definitely wish my hair was long again!
Another room swap, another broken nail and then it was over for day 3. My feet hurt worse than when I wear heels, my back is going to need physio for a month and I am seriously dehydrated. Two days to go girls and boys, let me know who your favourites are so far!
Image One: Rain starts falling Sydney (from our balcony)
Image Two: The Phos Phoro gift bag, program and flowers set on seats
Image Three: Fashionistas at Jayson Brunsdon
Image Four: Packing gift bags for Karla Spetic
Visit Phos Phoro, Jayson Brunsdon and Karla Spetic for all the SS10/11 collections
