STYLEAID BLOG

18 sleeps and wish I didn’t have to count……….it’s getting closer and seems the list of to do’s is getting longer.
Since my last entry I have finalised the finale garments thanks to my dear friend Paul O’Connor.  His meticulous attention to detail makes my job so much easier.
As part of the Design for Comfort project, a research and development project carried out the Dept of Agriculture and Food and the Curtin University of Technology, five WA designers were invited to produce a range of five bodies using the latest knitting technology. The results are more than beautiful and a fitting end to our Heavenly program, plus a little surprise has been organised, you will have to be there to see it.
I have also organised part of catwalk design, which entailed two trips to Gidgegannup with the fabulous Tony Salom, who organised the whole thing. Can’t say anymore than that, as then you will know what we are doing. Anyway this is only the beginning as next weekend I will be busy putting it all together. White spray paint is part of the process. 
Been busy with emails to and from agencies that worked hard organising 100 models ready for a fitting, which was done today at my house!! 

Many emails later and just a few changes to the original model selection, we saw and fitted over 70 models today, disappointingly we had about 25% no shows which means a lot of catching up to do and a delay in our finalising the running orders and fine tuning all garment details. Until you have done a show of this size, no one can really understand the amount of work it entails.

Today was intense but thanks to some wonderful people turning up to help I was able to concentrate on the job at hand and get the job done. Thanks to Mark Reid, our photographer today, who also turned up with soup for lunch, Satya, the scribe, Georgia and Sophie who did the first shift, Garth and Emili who finished the second shift. Mark Reid is my angel, he knows exactly how much pressure I am under at times and always manages to make me smile and make me feel better. He and I work closely together on this event, even more so this year, He has become a dear friend and I am grateful for his unending support.  When Mark was on long service leave I found I had lost my inspiration, he is so encouraging in everything I do and try to achieve for StyleAID. I nearly gave the whole thing up at one point early in the year and the only thing that kept me going was………..I couldn’t let Mark down.

Thanks to all the models who did show for fittings and waited patiently for their turn to undress on a particularly chilly day and who still smiled when they had finished.

Thanks to the designers, especially those who were super organised, it makes our lives bliss and those not so organised, just make sure you follow up this week as otherwise you will have to receive more of those email you hate to receive titled, StyleAID………….urgent.

Monday morning I will be on the phone organising and re-scheduling models who didn’t show. Processing all the information we received yesterday and listening to all the music CD’s I received from designers to see if it all blends together well enough for the show.

Things to be achieved this week must include talking to hair and makeup to work out the call times for the day, the sooner I get these into the agencies the sooner the models can book out the time. It takes about 7 hours for the hair and makeup teams to prepare the models, great care has to be taken to ensure that the most difficult hair do’s and the most complicated make-ups are called first.

I must finalise the models for Material Boy, they were unable to fit this weekend so it gave me a bit of time to find their ‘look’.
Some of the emerging designers need help with styling and music so must look at this and come up with some ideas that are easily executed and that will make their collections just that little bit more theatrical.

Pia Bennett, new designer to StyleAID would have to get my vote for wow factor. Her collection will look stunning on the catwalk.

I think I will feel better after tomorrow……………will let you know next week when I write my next blog.