Step by step account of Savers catwalk show

At the risk of boring you, I’m putting up another post about the Savers Mill Park opening event last Wednesday night. It’s a fairly blow-by-blow account, so those of you who just want to see pretty pictures (thanks to SDP Media), scroll down!

I was invited to model in the event because another participant, Lara at Wardrobe Wonderland, knows how much I love op shopping and recycled fashion, however most of the models were taking part because they were friends with the organisers. All the models gathered outside Melbourne’s Arts Centre at 2:30pm and we were taken by mini bus to Mill Park (probably because they knew none of us would get there on time otherwise!)

On the bus were told that we would get to choose two outfits, a casual and a formal one, and we would get to keep one of them. So that things would run on time, half of us would go to hair and makeup first while the other group chose their outfits, and then we would swap.
I was so excited that I was first through the door at the new store – but my enthusiasm proved my downfall as I was grabbed to be in the first hair and makeup group. I’d never had my hair and makeup done professionally so was excited about that but had been looking forward to being let loose in the new store straight away. Instead, I had base smoothed on, lips made luscious, eyes ringed in black and false eyelashes attached (with sighs escaping from the despairing makeup artist, due to my spindly little eyelashes and the black eyeliner smudging everywhere) and hair given the glam treatment too. All this took an hour or more... and then there were 20 minutes to rehearsal and I had not even chosen ONE outfit. So I ran madly around the store grabbing anything and everything that looked like it might fit, and came up with this…

A boy’s wool jumper originally from Target and a suede fringed skirt by Morgan de Toi which was part of a set (the top was a fringed, backless number which you can see here). Also loads of necklaces, a leather bag and Italian leather shoes with stacked wood heels. I just had time to get this on before the rehearsal, and then raided the racks for a more formal outfit while we were waiting for the show to start.

I went for a racewear look as I’d discovered a gold pillbox hat and cream beaded gloves – the challenge was then finding the dress! I suppose I ended up being a bit patriotic as I went green and gold (thanks to the Savers staff for helping me find the gold heels).
So that was me taken care of, and I managed to make it down the catwalk without tripping or dying of nerves. Miracles do happen.
Here are some of the other models – two pretty ladies in polka dots:


Monochrome looks for these two:


Lara’s “evening” look:

And the finale:

We had photos taken after the show too and then got to do some shopping. Here you can see where Lara got her jacket… rather than ransack the racks, she shopped from her fellow models (she not only bought the jacket that the guy on the right is wearing, she also bought the hat and gloves that I chose!)



And this picture is a member of the audience overwhelmed in the book section, just to give you an idea of how big this place is!


After the adrenalin rush of being a model and getting to shop unrestrained in a NEW SAVERS STORE, the mini bus took us back to the city and we all went home. Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I’m sure people on the train were looking at me strangely. The makeup team had said our look was meant to be “Sex and the City” but by that stage my supposedly sultry eyes were probably better described as amateur emo. Oh well, I’m sure even supermodels don’t look super all the time!