Girl Frocked Up: Lady Petrova

Amid all the excitement, chaos and occasional drama at fittings it's standard to miss a face or two when they walk in the door. Try overlooking Lady Petrova; it's impossible.

She fluttered in like Tinkerbell for her fitting this morning and couldn't have been a greater pleasure to work with. Dressed for the occasion in a fabulous electric cobalt frock, floral tights, matching cobalt wedges and fabulous sunset coloured hair, she came chest high on most models and yet had an incredible presence that commanded the attention of everyone in the near vicinity.

Sound familiar? Probably because she was a finalist from Project Runway in 2008.

She also had paint on her hands from personally spray painting her shop floor in Melbourne yesterday.

What a trooper.

This is your first time showing at MBFF, how are you feeling?

I'm very excited! Very very excited! I'm not sure what to expect but I'm pretty organised.

How are you feeling about your fitting this morning?

Good... Okay... It's always madness so I don't really know how I feel about it until I go back home and have a cup of tea and check that my order was kind of close to what I was hoping it would be and that shoes still fit. And I have girls that I still need to fit so I'm a bit stressed but it'll be fine I'll do it on the day.

Tell me about your personal style.

It's very colourful compared to everyone else. In my head I don't really think it's that colourful but everyone's telling me that it is so I guess it is. Really girly, really fun, and edgy and whimsical.

Do you mirror that in your collections?

Yeah definitely.

How is life after Project Runway?

Oh yeah it's pretty good, it's pretty much the same as it was before.

What changed for you after the show?

I met a lot of really lovely people and my shop's doing really well, (Lady Petrova in Melbourne) and people know who I am more and I get lots of people coming into my shop telling me that they love me.

Do you currently stock in Brisbane?

I currently stock at Drove in Brisbane and I'm looking for more stockists while I'm up here. I have a lot of really great Brisbane customers who I send stock to from Melbourne. I'm really excited because I've got about 20 Brisbane customers who are coming to my parade dresssed in Lady Petrova dresses and I'm going to take them all out for a drink afterwards.

How can you not love her?!