Miss J and I just raised a toast to new friends and fashion, a fairly good summary of our week. On our last night in Sydney, Miss J is cooking up a storm, we are drinking sparkling grape juice and I am reflecting on day 4 of Rosemount Australian Fashion Week (ironically Miss J just set off the smoke alarm, an apt summary of our day). In direct contrast to yesterday’s sleep in, today we had a 5.30am alarm to make the 7am volunteer call time. As a dresser, Miss J had to be there on the dot, while I had a little more time, starting at 8.30. I got up at 6am regardless to blog and catch up on emails, a much more productive time than 11pm.

By 8.30am when I turned up to work, Miss J was still cooling her heels by the harbour, with the other volunteers, waiting for the production managers to collect them. This has been the way of the week, extreme start and finish times for volunteers who were only required for a minimum of hours, or not at all. From over 1600 volunteers, only 300 were selected and it seems a large majority of the girls I have met are from interstate. Many volunteers have stopped turning up to shifts (apparently, we received a strongly worded email) because of the lack of coordination, although I imagine these are Sydney based vollies because I didn’t pay to come all this way and then miss out on the experience!

But back to day 4 at RAFW. The morning shift sent us back to the Cargo theatre where first on the schedule was Ae’lkemi, a Perth based label. The room had been laid out by us last night so renumbering was first up, then program and gift bag allocation. Pre-packaged gift bags were a god send for the front of house vollies who had not yet had a cup of coffee although the models who would have had a much earlier hair and make up call than us still seemed to be off in the land of nod while they learned the complicated choreography someone had dreamed up for them. A figure X style layout meant walking up and down aisles plus a circle motion when the girls met in the middle. After watching them parade and run into each other for several minutes, we did wonder if perhaps they would make it through the show without an error!

The show did go off without a hitch although the room wasn’t full and I managed a front row seat – I do wonder if having volunteers seated in the front row makes it a success? The label was eveningwear and as I overheard one punter say, it was quite ‘florida-esque’; bold prints in blues and greens, lot’s of nudes and a second part of the show in black. My awesome seat allowed for pretty good pics (as good as it gets on iphone) and for my tenth show of the week, I finally got to actually see the designer when he walked out on stage. As a sidenote, I love this about RAFW, at LMFF designers names are just brands, not people.

A room swap, new numbers, new gift bags and programs – starting to sound repetitive yet? My muscles are starting to remember the pattern and by the time I was allocated my job for Gary Bigeni – ‘paddle pop’ girl – I was starting to feel fatigue. My tiny breakfast wasn’t cutting it, it was hot and sitting in an office all day does nothing to prepare you for actual physical work. I sat on the stair for the Gary Bigeni show, pretty much over the whole experience but still alert enough to register Gary’s awesome jersey dresses, draping and pastels. The shoes the models wore were pretty awesome, nude platform wrap and strap heels with leather ties from G&L handmade. I am sure they cost a mint but I’ll be on the lookout for them when I get home.

Further room changing took place before our second last shift was over and we escaped to Bondi Junction for the afternoon for a spot of shopping. Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Bally; Jimmy Choo, Coach and Target(?!) – we ventured to them all. Miss J picked up a few bits and bobs, I tried on lot’s but couldn’t find anything to take my fancy. A final stop at Guess revealed an in-store event was taking place as part of a demin collaboration with Cleo magazine. We picked up an elderflower mocktail and tried on shoes, enjoying the atmosphere for a while before being told that the purchase Miss J had made at quarter to 6 wasn’t eligible for the gift bag – we hot footed it out of there and back to casa de fashion to rest up for day 5.

I have enjoyed hearing all the Sydney people complain about the cold today – 20 degrees in Melbourne is practically balmy but the Sydney folk were breaking out the scarves and gloves. Its disappointing we haven’t been able to break out anything remotely fashionable this week, besides wearing our high heels around our apartment, so I am looking forward to returning home where shoes reign supreme and I don’t have to wear the same thing for five days in a row (don’t worry, I washed it in between!)

Happy travels and sweet dreams fashionistas! Catch you at the airport tomorrow!

Image One: Blogging, Sparkling and Pad Thai at Casa de fashion
Image Two: Ae’lkemi
Image Three: Ae’lkemi
Image Four: Models prepping for Gary Bigeni
Image Five : Me at Bondi Junction station

Visit Ae’lkemi and Gary Bigeni to see the SS10 collections