4TH DECEMBER 2010 ♥

Adelaide Fashion Festival.


Shock horror, I haven't posted here in almost a month! For this heinous crime I use the excuse "I was busy finishing my degree!" Boo-yah, I am now a certified Media Artist, (if that's the qualification one obtains from a Bachelor of Media Arts...) or at least I will be when I graduate next April.

In more exciting news, in the middle of November I volunteered at the Adelaide Fashion Festival! This year, the event had expanded to nine separate events held in different areas of the city, and was a huge success according to crowds and critics. I had never done anything like this before, but as I had experience working in theatre productions, I put myself down for a back-of-house role. This meant my job was to dress models backstage, which was the raddest job in the world! Here is some pictorial evidence of me in my very fashionable AFF T-shirt:

claireaff

I worked at two parades, the first being the "Norwood Parades on the Parade" (an outdoor public fashion event), and the second being the "Chambord Emerging Designers Showcase". This event was the grand finale of the festival, so anyone who's anyone in Adelaide fashion was going to be in the audience that night. My role entailed choosing a model and her designated rack of clothes, familiarising myself with the beautiful items and the best and fastest methods to put them on, taping the shoes so they don't slip on the runway, and basically sending the model out in time to avoid a big gap on the catwalk!

It was a huge challenge to keep up with the fast pace, but the atmosphere back stage was amazing. I forgot I was a mere volunteer, feeling like an awesome stylist in NYC, or something similarly glamorous. The only thing I regret was not having a million hours to just stand there and absorb the fashion in that room. Alexis George, George Gross + Harry Who, Liza Emanuele and Oscar The Third were a few of the fashion heavyweights we were graced with in the form of gowns that night, not to mention the Mary Kyri shoes (oh and Mary herself, in the form of an endlessly-legged fireball!).

My model was Hannah, she was completely beautiful, sweet and about twenty feet tall. We worked together to pull off the following gorgeous ensembles.

Emerging Designers Parade:

hayleykate
Designer: Hayley Kate

saintelucie
Designer: Sainte Lucie

dsc_3760
Designer: Yvonne Faye
Photograph by Caughtcouture.

juliewhite
Designer: Julie White
Photograph by Caughtcouture.

This outfit was one of my favourites, especially the gorgeous headpiece! I will always die for anything tulle. However this was the fastest change of the night - we had literally thirty seconds before Hannah's name was being yelled by the back-of-house manager, and she still wasn't dressed! This was in rehearsal, so we practised again and made the change a bit faster - luckily it went smoothly on the night. We didn't even have time to fasten the headpiece to her hair, so it had to balance as she walked!

Established Designers Parade:

alexis george
Designer: Alexis George

This incredible gown was such a challenge to put on, it weighed a tonne and we weren't sure how to fix up the back! But it looked absolutely stunning on Hannah, purple headpiece and all. Hannah wore these white Mary Kyri shoes throughout the Established Designers parade, pretty sure they were about $5000! But despite their price tag, they were a little too small for her feet so we had to use extra strength to do up the buttons at the side, and her feet were dying by the end.

That Alexis George image was the only decent one I found of Hannah in the Established Designers parade, which is disappointing because I fell completely in love with a pair of Cameo dress shorts she wore on the night! They were gold, beaded, sequined and actually affordable, so I might have to somehow track them down.


Emerging Designer Winner:

Jaimie Sortino took out the Emerging Designer award for the night, which he was so deserving of! Jaimie is such a lovely guy, he was backstage the whole day with a needle and thread, sewing last minute touches onto his lavish tulle designs! His dresses were so beautiful in a kind of modern fairytale kind of way; they were such incredible, artfully detailed ballgowns. I also loved Jaimie's personal style, check out his shredded threads!

jaimie
Photograph by Caughtcouture.

jaimie2
Photograph by Caughtcouture.


- C x