Samantha Ogilvie

Liz Golding and Megan from Samantha Ogilvie shoe styling.

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Toscani

Toscani boutique was really sneaky. They out sneakied me, in that I saw them come in, and yet somehow was off in fairyland and missed most of their fitting. No idea what I was doing.. but this is the one picture I did manage to snap out of my reverie and take.

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Clueless.

Day 3 of fittings was one of air kissing and daaaaaahlings. It was also a bad day for me to feel like I couldn't get organised.

Fortunately, I have some oh so fabulous assistants Kate and Amber (and Layla who I always borrow from Liz) who have taken to thinking for me. Big big big big big thank you to you all!

To continue with my clueless nature today, I've spent 10 minutes staring at the 115 sneaky pictures I took and tried to figure out the best way to post them. So up they go for each designer in a separate post and that way you don't have to traul through any you may not be quite so fond of.

I'm also in the habit of interviewing people in the elevator. Why? Because they can't escape me, as I'm one of 4 people with a pass to get out and the backstage area of QPAC is like a rabbit warren.

So when I manage to get my head around today, I'll endeavour to post everything in an orderly fashion.

A totally clueless..

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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?!

Candy coloured collection.

La'Ace wearing Lady Petrova, with the Lady herself.

LADY PETROVA LOVES FROCK PAPER SCISSORS! <3

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Day 2 Fittings

This was my favourite garment of the day without a doubt. As much as I love some of the trends that come and go, I'm more of a classic kind of girl. This dress made my day-it is of course by Darb Bridal Couture and there was a collective gasp when the garment bag was unzipped. Heaven!

Lauren Beasely being fitted for Darb Bridal Couture by Kimberley Garden and Deb, also known as Queen of Costume Jewellery.

Other happenings of the day:

 

Beautiful Foxton Danger Kaftans and printed tops.

Saralli-peacock printed leggings, black sequinned see through top, feather somethings?

Blue and pink heels by Alice Who? . Amazing! Also seen at Miss Unkon's RAFW show earlier this year.

Ooooo it's coming along! Maybe they did work through the night after all.

A very tired......

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Day 2 Model Fittings

I may have started the week a tad overexcited. You know how you throw yourself into a project 150% then the next day you feel buggered? Or when you ambitiously drink 2 bottles of wine because 'you won't even feel it' the next day? That's how I felt today.

The former, unfortunately not the latter.

Today I woke up blessed with the headache Liz Golding no longer needed and consequently passed on to me, so to my assistant tomorrow-sorry but it's your turn next. I was also blessed with the ability to whinge about how my head was aching like a ... which resulted in one of the lovelier models ferreting in her bag for Nurofen.

Which brings me to my next point, when magazines say that small bags are 'tres chic' and 'so versatile', they have to be lying. Either that, or they have never had to work backstage at a fashion event. My bag near exploded today. Seriously! Look what I managed to fit in it!

'Tres Ridiculous'

Combat boots, flats, gum, deodorant, 2 ipods, a phone charger, entire make up bag, camera, nail polish, sunglasses, 4 lipsticks, boost apricot bites, programs. To name a few.

And I'm not the only one, every second model has a Country Road bag if not something to that affect.

So first up this morning was an MX photoshoot and fittings for group show 7:

Daniel Alexander Couture

Blanc + Delta

Neon Heartache

Lilya

Beginning Boutique

Lady Petrova

If you don't already have tickets to this show, get them!

While I worked very hard at sending 20 models between 6 designers and trying to sneak in a few interviews, I also got sidetracked by Lilya. For those who don't know, Lilya is designed by the oh so wonderful Lisa, who is based on the Sunshine Coast and looks like a walking campaign for 'I just threw this on and look fabulous'. This was further enforced when she literally tied her hair in a knot because she couldn't find a hairtie.

Lilya shoes that I absolutely must have.

Lilya shoe sorting.

Lisa and Liz Golding styling Gemma Scott for Lilya.

Daniel Alexander Couture.

You can't reaaaaaaally tell because I nearly got chased down for taking this sneaky photo, but La'Ace is modelling Blanc + Delta for an MX photoshoot.

Blanc + Delta fitting.

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Day 1 Model Fittings

Today I tentatively stepped up to my role as backstage manager of MBFF, and blogger for Frock Paper Scissors. With day one of model fittings done and dusted the anticipation is already building for the week to JUST BE HERE. Hosted by Southbank, MBFF is taking on a new look in the form of a marquee (so very New York Fashion Week of us) which is steadily being erected as I type. (Maybe not as I type, but it was being built this afternoon when I left).

I took the liberty of taking this picture for you.

It's pretty dodgy on my part, but what has been set up is the hair and make up tent, and if you look REALLY closely to the right of the make up tent you can see the poles where backstage and front of house is being built.

Today was broken up into three separate fittings;
Group Show 3
V Australia Swimwear
Brisbane Arcade Group Show

All up, that means we had a total of 19 designers, 46 models, and 10 assistants.

 Roughly.

I managed to have a quick chat to the lovely ladies from 2 Chillies Swimwear (really super quick chat), while we ooohed and aaaahed over their new pieces.

2 Chillies has gone through a lot of changes in the past few years, the pieces now appear to have a much wider appeal?

We actually just showed at Miami Fashion Week in the States for the first time and it was really well received over there which is exciting. In the past five years that I've worked with the company it's just gone in an exciting new direction.

2 Chillies also seems to have a broader stockist variety?

When it first began it stocked as a bit of a minority, but now we are with chain stores like City Beach the popularity has really increased.

Time really is the enemy when it comes to fashion weeks, fashion festivals, or let's face it-any fashion related event. Why you ask? Because 'fashionista' can also mean 'perfectionist'. The more time you have the more you spend on getting every minute detail exactly right. So needless to say that whilst I consider myself a decent journalist, I get the opportunity to ask interviewees two questions if I'm lucky and of course there's no time to take notes or clarify dates. Thank heavens for iPhone voice memos. Fortunately, I'm better with pictures.

2 Chillies fitting.

Ivana and Katerina fitting with lovely model Lillie.

Tulipani fitting.

My crazy desk space. Organised chaos? I think not.

Please note: After my limited success at remembering names after Day 1, you'll start to notice many designers become 'friends' if I can't remember names. Same for models, locations, stylists, make up artists, and near everyone behind the scenes at MBFF.

e.g. My lovely friends at 2 chillies...

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