MELBOURNE FASHION FESTIVAL
WORDS BY NFC STUDENT SIENNA SPAGNOL
When I got the email from National Fashion College inviting students to an incredible opportunity, spending a week in Melbourne to watch and assist at the Melbourne Fashion Festival, I couldn't resist!
It was a busy start to the week, visiting brands back-to-back. We met up with Twoobs, an Australian footwear company run by two sisters, Jess & Stef with a heart and passion for sustainability and comfort. It was so inspiring to see how much effort they were putting into ethical productions, making a difference, and how us as students can lead our life choices through sustainability.
Head Office Tour At Twoobs
We then dashed off with only a few minutes to spare to see Love it Longer, run by two sisters Mattia & Guilia and their mum, reselling luxury items including shoes, clothing and accessories. All the girls went crazy as they had such beautiful items and one student even bought a Prada bag for their mum. How cute!
Meet & Greet With Love It Longer
The most exciting event of that night was attending Melbourne Fashion Festival where we had a BTS tour with the MFF team. We then proceeded to watch the amazing Triumphant x Paypal Runway, featuring ICONIC Australian model Elle MacPherson, for whom the crowd went wild. The show featured brands such as Lancome, Ngail, Oroton, AJE (which was my favourite), and many more! I know, what an incredible line up, I felt so lucky to watch my first runway and have these amazing opportunities provided by NFC.
Melbourne Fashion Festival Opening Night
Tuesday and Wednesday were purely dedicated to volunteering as back of house dressers for the models. On Tuesday, the two shows we were allocated to were Thread Lightly Runway x Delottie and National Graduate Showcase x Emporium, they say if you can dress a student show you can dress any show because the garments are always so wonderfully complex.
Tour of GUCCI’s Flagship Store
For the Thread Lightly Runway, I dressed a model named Yar, she had 3 looks, which doesn't sound like much, although her changes were lighting fast. We only had a few seconds to get them changed in between looks, often you’ll be running with the model and tying her shoe at the same time. All the models were incredibly nice, understanding and would help us accommodate both their needs and ours to make sure it ran as smooth as possible.
Q&A with Anthony Capon, Creative Director & Designer at Et Al
The second show was the National Graduate Showcase, which truly had some of the most amazing pieces. I was assigned to be a runner and boy did I run. Both shows were incredible, although I have to say this was my personal favourite.
Meet & Greet With Karla Laidlaw
On Wednesday, the first show was the Suit Up Runway, where I had four outfits to dress on Lim Lee who is one of the fastest dressing models I have ever seen. The next show was Glam Up Runway supported by Network 10 and QMS, for this show I was a modesty dresser for Kowsar and Naila. They were so sweet, and it felt like such a good learning opportunity to know how to dress in a different environment. They had one look each which made my life very easy. I then became a runner again, some of the garments were very extravagant and required more than 2 hands which was a great way to meet people.
Julia Morris was there for this runway to help promote her show with Robert, she was so incredibly funny and nice. It was such a memorable night.
Thursday, we had more meet and greets, one of them being a small business run by Karla Laidlaw. I bought some really cool playing cards and a beautiful white button up. I aspire to have my own store like that.
HQ Tour At HoMie
We then went to ET-AL, a Q&A with winner of Project Runway Season 2, Anthony Capon. It was so incredible to see how far he has come in the fashion industry and the inspiration behind his designs which come from food and wine culture.
We then travelled to Fitzroy to have a tour of Homie, a not-for-profit supporting young people affected by homelessness or hardship. Their community support service helps with employment, education and more which was so amazing to see how they were giving back to the community.
Later that night we went to the theatre and watched Rocky Horror Show, if you like weird and wacky this show is definitely for you, and better yet it's interactive with the audience having call back words with the cast. It was such an amazing musical and I have wanted to see it for a while, so it was fabulous.
Friday was our last day! We had a street style photoshoot, visiting some iconic landmarks and locations showing off NFC crew t-shirts, which was a great way to see Melbourne and spend our last morning celebrating our amazing college. JUST WAIT TILL YOU SEE THESE PHOTOS.
I would like to say a huge thank you to National Fashion College, especially Bryce and April for all their incredible hard work and organisation for all these events, it was definitely a week to remember.
If you're interested in anything fashion, NFC is the perfect stepping stone to launch your fab future.