When you live here it's easy to get stuck in your bubble and do the same things, see the same people. It's easy to complain about the traffic, public transport and the wanky city types. Starting from approximately 2.5 weeks ago, we're doing all the things that take our fancy, no matter if we have to go to work the next day, or can't sleep in on the weekend, or require us to find parking. ew.
Our first big event adventure was to go to Sydney Fashion Festival. One of us had been before, one of us hadn't. It's basically the fashion festival for us normal people. The chance for us to feel like we are part of the fashion pack, even though most of us are far from it. In fashion speak "it appeals directly to consumers". Thanks for that.
We went to the opening gala night, which was a retrospective of the last 15 years in Aus fash. Our brains went into overdrive.
We loved
The complete sensory overload – in the first 10 minutes we were nudging each other and had that wide eyed, open mouthed look. It was totally NOT fashionista behaviour. You must play it cool, darrrrling.
Everything caught our eyes. The clothes, the lights, the flashing cameras, the famous peeps in the front row opposite. It was a whirlwind of colours and elaborate details that just worked. PLUS, the music makes you want to strut.
It was also super fun watching the photographic pack at the end of the runway. Like a hungry pack of wolves they would flash-flash-flash-flash at the models like their life depended on it. Once she had turned they relaxed and looked completely bored. And repeat.
What was weird
That most girls in the audience who were not catwalk models would try to emulate catwalk models – this made for a very strange experience for the observer.
Why would you try to emulate a six foot beauty who does this for her job when you are a 5 foot girl next door? Surely you are setting yourself up for a major fail. There were over sized stilettos and complicated outfits everywhere you looked. There was even a set with photographers and industrial fans where you could get your photo taken!(For a fee - of course). Here we saw an average looking teenage girl with braces staring down the lense, giving the cameraman bedroom eyes. She was a cross between a model in Dolly Magazine and a Ralph hussy. Wrongo.
Who we saw
One half of us is a major gossip pages lover. Was born like this, don't hate me. There was Kate Waterhouse who looked like a lollypop head on heels, that were so grotesquely high she couldn't walk without holding onto something.
The coolest part was seeing all the designers in the front row. Akira, Collette Dinnigan, Wayne Cooper, Jayson Brunsdon. It was really interesting to watch their reactions to their outfits. Total poker face. Except WC who whispered to his wife when he didn't like something from another designer.