Yes, it is in fact, the end. After just 5 days, RAFW is over for another season and I am currently at the airport waiting for my flight home – back to my shoes, clothes and accessories, my apartment, my job and my friends. It’s been a long week but has really gone by so quickly. I have seen thirteen shows, eaten endless cheese and lettuce sandwiches and as much as I would like to think I have lost a few kilo’s, I have a sneaky suspicion I may have put some on with Miss J’s cooking. Yes, it’s finally home time.

But what of the last day of RAFW? Only two shows in Cargo today for the morning shift, an 8.30am call time, not so bad really, and finishing up on the dot of 2pm. A really easy day that didn’t involve any room swapping fun and only minimal gift bag packing antics. Upon arrival this morning and being, I like to think, handpicked to work in Cargo for the day (Chip was looking for vollies he had worked with during the week) we entered the theatre that had been transformed – or at least slightly modified – into a dreamland. Cardboard clouds hung from the ceiling, beautiful floral and lattice works lined the entry to the catwalk and a backyard swing, think The Secret Garden, hung from the roof. A chalk hopscotch board was drawn on to the floor, with hearts and curls and other embellishments. It was surreal. The Miss Unkon label was due to show at 11am and we still had 2 hours to fill before the curtain came up.

I got sent backstage to participate in one of my other most favourite fashion week jobs, shoe taping! Readers will remember my joy at spending endless hours taping shoes during LMFF so you can imagine my excitement when allocated this task. We were taping the Sportsgirl Shia wedges, in grey and tan, and some lurvely sparkling (read: porn star) shoes with glitter and platforms. I did worry about what the clothes would be like when they came out! I was commended for my shoe taping expertise, passed on some wisdom to some virgin shoe tapers (one was 16 – how old did I fee!!) and got outta there before anyone else could command backstage tasks from me. I wanted to be out the front! Back on deck front of house, I was again made a ‘paddle pop’ girl and I prepared for the second last show of my week. Miss Unkon was actually quite good with lots of pastels, pinks and ruffles. The show also had some theatre – a ballet dancer/gymnast-esque girl who performed some contortion, ribbon dancing and a general amazing display of aerobatics. The models were allowed to smile (shock, horror!) and be playful and girly, a sweet change from the blank stares we have gotten all week.

I had a great possie right up the end of the runway and vowed that for my final show I was aiming for the same position. White Sands was to be my last show and preparation in the form of gift bag packing was required. Finally a show with the same floorplan layout! I folded 300 programs and laid them out on the seats, then helped with the final gift bags and distribution. Does anyone else think that the White Sands label looks like the logo from TV show, Bewitched?? The White Sands designer was seemingly everywhere at once (Laugh Out Loud moment of the day was when someone asked a fellow vollie if they had seen the designer and they replied with ‘that girl with the short black dress, lot’s of boobies? Yeah, she went that way’) and by 1pm we were roaring to go. Then we waited. And waited. And waited for the show upstairs to finish. We were close to 1.45 when announcements were made that we were close to starting and Miss J walked in just in time (having finished her shift at the upstairs venue a touch earlier than I) so that we got to watch our first, last and only, show together. The White Sands swim and resort wear wasn’t bad, probably a bit too Miami for me but there was a black one piece with a ruffle shoulder I thought was pretty cute.

Just like that, the models did their final walk and exited to backstage for the last time, the irony of the White Sands models disappearing off into the sunset backdrop at my last show not lost on me. We signed out for the final time, collected our volunteer gift bag and headed back to the hotel to collect our bags and return to where it all started – Sydney airport.

So here we are, waiting for the 6.30pm flight, tired (read: exhausted) and over it but so looking forward to being home, sleeping in our own beds and seeing our loved ones. There’s no place like home, and for me, Melbourne is it and a bit. I don’t know where fashion will take me in the future – from Sydney to Siberia (it could happen!) – but there is nothing like coming home. More fashion week stories and reports are to come (including special make up and hair reports) so stay tuned to the Style Emporium in the coming week. Shoes and smiles, Sarah xx

Image One: Miss J and I at Sydney Harbour waiting for our shift to start, looking horribly tired
Image Two: Miss Unkon models and staging before the show
Image Three: Miss Unkon finale
Image Four: White Sands ruffle one piece swimsuit
Image Five: White Sands models walk into the sunset

Visit Miss Unkon and White Sands in the coming months for thier SS10/11 collections