Ever wondered what it’s like volunteering at NZ Fashion Week? Diana Russell shares her experience, working 10 and 13 hour days and saying she didn’t even blink but had so much fun it could hardly be classed as ‘work’…
Ever wondered what it’s like volunteering at NZ Fashion Week?
Diana Russell is in her second year in a Bachelor of Communications at Massey Uni, majoring in journalism, minoring in creative writing and taking electives in photography and fashion. She is also a writer for Magneto, Massey’s student magazine.
Here’s Diana’s story on her experience volunteering at Fashion Week, where she says she was working 10 and 13 hour days and didn’t even blink but had so much fun it could hardly be classed as ‘work’…
20 shows, 51 designers, a year’s supply of sample sized cosmetics and that’s a wrap! New Zealand Fashion week 2011, five full days living and breathing nothing but fashion.
Over the week there were 47 shows, including Fashion Weekend, from labels Ruby, Lonely Hearts, Jimmy D, Trelise Cooper, Huffer, MisteR and Neverblack to name but a few. Being a volunteer I got to see 20 of them, for free.
That being said Fashion Week is definitely not for the faint of heart. Working 13 hours on five hours sleep, some days without a break – and the oddest of eating patterns – breakfast at 7 a.m. coffee, coffee, Red Bull, some more coffee and finally dinner at 11:00 pm, walking in the door between 12:30 and 2:00 am, shower, dinner, sleep, then at 7am, getting up do it all over again. However, I probably should mention the no break thing was of my own doing as I was having so much fun I never wanted to leave in case I missed anything! Crazy, I know.
Walking down Halsey Street on Wednesday morning, I started to create crazy possible scenarios in my head of how the day would likely turn out. Visions of catty girls, crazy bosses, epically failing at whatever I was meant to do, being way too intimidated to string a sentence together, and basically ending up looking like a twat. But the reality really isn’t as insane as the movies make it out to be. My usual shy awkwardness had vanished, everyone was exceedingly lovely and by the end of my first day and 13 straight hours together I had made many new friends.
My first fashion show of the week, and my life was changed by Celine Rita by Auckland-based designer, Celine Chapman. Which, went a little something like this; me standing perfect centre of the centre aisle, pulling at my clothes and bouncing (subtly though) up and down on the balls of my feet like the giddy school kid I so recently was. Being that it was my first show, as well as Celine Rita’s debut show at Fashion Week, I had zero expectations, so it wouldn’t have taken much too exceed them.
But even by the end of the week Celine Rita was still in my top 3; my other two being Trelise Cooper and MisteR. The collection titled Addicted to Love opened to the song of the same name by Florence & the Machine. Very reminiscent of the 90’s, the collection included long flowing skirts, crushed velvet, cute pastels and delicious prints. So much talent. Russh Magazine’s Natalie Cantell must have agreed as she turned up for Trelise Cooper’s 5:30 show in a red crushed velvet top and black maxi with two thigh-high slits fresh off the Celine Rita catwalk. To which a friend commented “I would go celibate for that skirt!”
So what exactly does a Fashion Week volunteer do, you may be thinking? My job for the week was a combination of usher – fairly self-explanatory, and dresser – which entails dressing the models backstage during the show when they may have anywhere between 1-3 minutes to change into an entirely new outfit and get back onto the runway.
The first show I dressed for was Westpac’s Red Collection and by this time I had begun to question how it was that I kept getting myself into these situations. It was just two days ago I was sitting in a coffee shop in Ponsonby with my parents, aunt and uncle and six year old cousin planning to go spend two weeks at the Mount lounging about the house, catching up with friends and getting my assignments done. Now here I was surrounded by 6ft models, world-famous designers and terrified I was going to pop a button or send Tori, the model I was dressing, late down the runway.
And so day one went out with the biggest of bangs: Trelise Cooper. Trelise’s show had been mentioned to me as one of the must sees of the week. Her runway shows have a reputation for being the most anticipated in terms of entertainment value and this year’s show didn’t disappoint. So much fun, so much so I saw it twice! Actually it was the only show that even went on twice.
Its only downfall was perhaps the one and half-hour delay which surprisingly to ignorant little me didn’t surprise anyone. “Typical Trelise,” were two words I heard a lot of. But, by the time the first statuesque, legs stepped out from behind a blue denim American flag backdrop with bold patchwork letters spelling out ‘Cooper’ all was forgiven.
Red eye shadow and invisible tape pulled the models eyes into slits to give us glamorous vampires reminiscent of True Blood, walking the runway to the True Blood theme song Bad Things by Jace Everett. The show then took a turn to a more Little House on the Prairie vibe, with hats on each model to a soundtrack of Carrie Underwood’s Before He Cheats and Gaga’s You and I.
WORLD. Take the creative talents of designers Francis Hooper, Denise L’Estrange Corbet and Benny Castles, add to that the NZNTM finale, and you’re left with one heck of a show.
WORLD was by far the most hyped up show of the week and for us volunteers this meant war. Who was going to be ‘allowed’ in to see the show? The most likely scenario? No-one, seeing as it was going to be fully packed out as it was. We were told that Nicky, who organises the volunteers, will let us know who would be needed at 3:20. Which, unfortunate for hungry little me cut what would have been a one hour gap for lunch short to only 20 minutes and so the frantic rush for food began. Oh the disappointment on one girl’s face when she realised this meant we could no longer go to Starbucks and be back by 3:10 – 10 minutes earlier “just so she knows we’re there”. Because all these things really come down to is luck. Make sure you’re in the right place at the right moment and you’re sorted. So 3:30 ticks by and there’s about 10 of us just casually hanging out in the Westpac Shed ready to set up for the 4 pm Shoe of the Week show when Nicky walks in and announces “You can all do WORLD! As long as you promise to come back tomorrow” and the battle was fought and the war was won.
WORLD’s show brought together three stories; first up was a collection of science fiction-inspired black suits with blue neon piping, silver up-dos and NZNTM Bianca. Part two of the story portrayed the Duality of Women and included top model Rosanagh in a futuristic red and cream floral print presenting “the idea of an unknown future entwined with a sense of the past we never knew”. The third story was A Modern Oligarchy…"the dream of a winter princess for 2012" in which Brigette walked in a spiky ice queen crown and long faux fur red coat.
The show was followed by a ten minute wait while the judges decided on a winner and after much guesswork from the audience, NZ’s Next Top Model judge Sara Tetro gave the announcement. Brigette was the winner of cycle two of NZNTM and with that, Fashion Week was over – until next year. I’m already counting down the days.
By Diana Russell, 2 September 2011.
Photography Kevin Robinson August/September 2011
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