Fashion show wrap up – a week late!

Due to my whingeing over the last few posts, you are already familiar with the event that prevented me from bringing you a post-show-post… yes, laptops suffer fashion show fatigue too, and mine threw a supermodel-worthy tantrum last week and wouldn’t go on until I took it to Hard Drive Hotel to have its bits massaged or whatever it is that those tech types do to computers.
A week of indulging in byte-size snacks later, it’s back with me, minus its entire hard drive AKA ALL MY WORK FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS. AGGH. I’m trying to think of it as a fresh start for the new year, a few weeks early. And not think about the fact that I will now have to complete an entire workbook for the most boring course in the world again because I did not back it up. Aggh. Anyway, without further ado, here’s the inside story on the Fair@Square festival!
I arrived at Federation Square on the morning of Sunday, Dec 12, and headed to the dressing tent at the side of the stage – the show was held outside so “backstage” was a slightly primitive and intimate (read: squashy) affair, made more difficult by several torrential downpours throughout the day which sent rivers running through the tent. I tried to keep the models’ feet slightly dry by laying down huge plastic garbage bags. Aah, fashion. Always so glamorous!

After getting the tent ready, Fabia and I had a wander around the rest of the festival. We visited lovely Lou at the Peppermint tent (new issue on sale now!! Buy! Buy!)...


… and found this little helper at one of the stalls…


But a festival wouldn’t be a festival without music! There were bands and performers on the main stage all through the festival, including a very special one called The Vertical Smiles which counts the gorgeous Miss Claire among its members… yes, I finally got to meet one of my favourite bloggers.

She has a supercute rabbit but couldn’t bring him with her so you will just have to go and visit her blog for some of that awwww-someness. Her band was pretty awesome too. They play gypsy style music, Claire is on the violin.

The band was so good that they got people dancing even though it was raining… well, they got these festival volunteers dancing anyway…

Meanwhile, crowds had gathered at the top of the square to watch our live fashion shoot. Here’s Alicia from Cameron’s working her magic in an outfit by Neisha…


And here are the people who help the magic to happen, photographer Stephanie Bradford and co.


Finally 2:45pm rolled around and it was time to show the people of Melbourne (and the world, thanks to this blogging biz!) what we were all about. The models and volunteers were all in good spirits and there was even time to sit around having a joke.

And then the show began!

Here’s the lovely Lady Melbourne in her custom made Obus dress (it’s made of certified Fair Trade organic cotton! Isn’t it gorgeous? Isn’t SHE gorgeous?)

The backdrops were made by the talented Sian Pascale and set off the outfits beautifully… (OK, here’s where I admit that these photos were taken on Saturday by my mum… it poured down later in the day so the backdrops got soaking wet and had to be taken down, so there were no decorations on the stage on Sunday!)

You might have seen this little number before…

If you want to know more about the designers involved just go to the Fashion Show program guide here. And why wouldn’t you want to know more about all this fabulous – and ethical, eco-friendly – fashion!?

Once the show was over, we gathered round for some snapshots with Lady Melbourne… check out the big grins on our faces, we’re all so happy to have pulled off a successful event!

Who knows what Lady Melbourne seems to be looking at in this shot, there’s not a great deal to see in my chest region, haha.

And here are Fabia and I modelling our Dutzi bags – a little reward for all our hard work! Phew, if you’ve got through this massive post then you probably need a little reward for all your hard work. So go ahead, treat yourself to some Fairtrade chocolate, you’ve earnt it!