The world of fashion seems so glamorous, but what is it really like behind the scenes?
The L’Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival is a week-long event featuring Australia’s established and emerging designers. Each show is sponsored by an Australian magazine including, Vogue, InStyle, Grazia, madison, Harper’s BAZAAR, Cosmopolitan and frankie magazine. An all Aussie affair, the festival is integral to keeping our nation on the fashion map.
Now that the festival has come to a close, all of the busy little interns are packing away the endless stilettos and hair extensions for another year.
One of the interns, event management student, Rebekah Miller, let us in on what went on behind the scenes of the most anticipated week for trendy Melbournites.
“I was very lucky and had the chance to work in every section. The sections were fittings, collections, front of house and back of house.”
Fittings involved meeting the models and dressing them for their looks and working with the stylists.
Being part of collections mainly involved making sure the shoes were taped so that they weren’t damaged and also ensured they were put back where they belonged after use.
Front of house interns had to stock the gift bags, ensure the venue was clean and greet all the beautiful people as they arrived.
Back of house is the most hectic area of all, especially for the interns. With days spanning up to 14 hours, those working feverishly behind the scenes, needed to know each models’ style inside out to be able to dress them perfectly. This had to be done at numerous rehearsals times throughout the day so when the bright lights came on, everything went off without a hitch.
While working in each of these sections, Miller learnt pretty quickly that her job was so much more than watching runway shows and celebrity spotting.
“I was running around the city picking up and dropping things off, taping shoes, getting cabs around two corners then three minutes later getting in another to go back and pick up more stuff. The lack of sleep and trying to tape Band-Aids on models blistered feet so they could attempt to walk wasn’t the most glamorous of things.”
Yet, despite the chaos and stress-filled week, she still valued her experience highly.
“It was very interesting, getting to meet a lot of new people and actually seeing and being involved with how hectic back stage actually is — you can never imagine it until being out there dressing your model.”
And after seeing what our Australian designers have to offer us this season, our behind the scenes expert suggests some trends for the winter to come.
“Lots of layers, a-line dresses, bold patterns and button up shirts. And huge winter jackets.”
So go out, get creative and keep fashionably warm in your bold pieces.
And next time you watch a runway show on TV, take a moment to think of all of the poor interns, putting tape on the models’ throbbing blisters.
Stephanie Azzopardi is a third year Bachelor of Journalism student at La Trobe University and a part of the upstart team. Follow her on Twitter @StephAzzopardi.
Photos by Rebekah Miller
