SHOWTIME: Melbourne Fashion Festival - Day 1 (Part b)

Helen Lee - March 29 2005

As a good dresser, I go check out Nicole's rack, it consisted of: a blue ruffled Michelle Jank dress with beautiful jewelled gold Sergio Rossi shoes; Karen Walker plum turtleneck, white shirt, cream coloured collots, brown knee high socks and gorgeous shin high brown boots with a funky white satchel, chunky chain necklace and braided brown leather belt; a sheer Willow peach top, a beautiful white wool skirt with ruffles in just the right places, and a very very heavy 'armour' jacket that sat like a shrug; and lastly a gorgeous tailored Martin Grant trench coat with a pair of Christian Louboutin sandals.

And as a good dresser I was definitely thankful that I wouldn't have to iron or steam anything. The lines for the steamer is always long and sometimes things won't steam out, no matter how much designers want us to get rid of creases. We could use an iron, but with the delicate fabrics we have to deal with it's best to stick to a steamer (I shudder to think how high the damage bills could come to).

Pretty soon, first rehearsals are called. Models mill around their racks and start to get into their first outfits, Emily arrives and Jayde helps her into her first outfit while I'm standing around waiting for Nicole to arrive. A few minutes later they are calling for Nicole to come line up, after all she was the first one out on to the catwalk, but she hadn't shown up yet. Another few minutes later a slim brunette rushes up in a gorgeous red Belinda Fairbanks red dress with a lady in tow. It was Nicole, and she quickly jumps into the Michelle Jank dress as we exchange pleasantries and then she disappears again to join the line.

About 5 minutes later Nicole reappears, hops out of her Michelle Jank dress, tells me she's only doing the one outfit for rehearsals, puts her Belinda Fairbanks dress back on and disappears again. I rehang her Michelle Jank dress back up and help Jayde dress Emily. That is until I hear people yelling for 'Nicole's dresser', Rachel then appears and tells me as Nicole's dresser and I need to get her second outfit and get in line. Then it hit me, because they need someone to walk where Nicole would be walking so they can get the lighting and music right - I was going to have to walk on that 45 metre neon orange catwalk!

Lucky me! And let me tell you I was mortified the first time I walked out on to the catwalk. There wasn't much of an audience, but the stylist, ushers, and organisers were watching the rehearsal. And as I found out it was a very long catwalk, and I had to walk a certain speed and 'strike a pose' at the end of the catwalk for the few media people. Little did I know but a news team was recording the rehearsal because the show started after their news program and they wanted to show a clip of the runway. Thankfully I didn't make the cut!

Continue reading... part c