Tag along on the first full day of NZFW 2018 with FQ features director Lucy Slight. It’s called Day 2, but it’s really the first day. It’s confusing, we know.
6am: I wake up and complete a number of virtuous tasks should sinfulness ensue later on. These include 30 minutes of Yoga with Adriene on my living room floor, 5 minutes of foam rolling (I hope my physio is reading this), a green smoothie laced with various adaptogenic powders, and avocado on paleo toast. Hate me yet? Don’t worry, I just had to get my 5 + A Day out the way and I promise I’ll be eating fried sh*t later. I’m wearing a flowing, spring-like, silk dress by Twenty-seven Names today, even though it’s about 10 degrees outside. I’m happy to suck it up because this dress is wonderful.
8:20am: Leave my house, sit in traffic for 35 minutes (not bad today!) and get to work. The FQ team is looking HOT for the day ahead – especially digital content producer Terri who has taken Kiwi ingenuity to the next level by tucking a tissue into her creamy white woolen Maggie Marilyn turtleneck so as not to transfer her fresh makeup onto the neck fold while waiting for her lewk to set.
10:30am: Time for the Twenty-seven Names show, A Cat May Look at a Queen. I quickly install Shazam on my phone while still on the work wi-fi because their soundtrack is always epic but I often forget what I’ve heard when it comes time to report back. The playlist, as predicted is fan-fricken-tastic and I’m bopping in my seat to absolute jams – Welcome Back by Mase, Bad Girls (Remix) by M.I.A feat Busta Ryhmes and finale song Des’ree’s You Gotta Be. But the stand-out number was by far the Auckland Girls Grammar choir singing Rihanna’s Diamonds, which almost reduced me to tears. And only “almost” because I had to work really hard to keep the tears inside my eye sockets, rather than let them escape. I am the world’s least attractive cryer, I just can’t get hold of the people at the Guiness Book of Records to confirm it. A beautiful show by two truly beautiful souls – Anjali and Rachel, you did it again (and I love the hand-painted cat print!)
Backstage at the Twenty-seven Names show.
12:00pm: It’s off to the Viaduct Events Centre for the first on-site show of the day, Rachel Mills. But first, we caught our Samsung street style photographer out front and got our pics taken for the day. I hope you can’t tell I’m frozen to my innermost core and also starving. Rachel Mills is a beautiful installation in The Studio, complete with a hauntingly beautiful live singer and her electric guitar. How beautiful is this hair look?! Someone pass me the Elnett, STAT.
A model seen at the Rachel Mills installation.
1:00pm: I must answer the call of my hollow stomach cavity, so my friend Beck Wadworth (you know, from An Organised Life. She makes those diaries you’ve definitely already got your 2019 pre-order in for) and I head to Miss Clawdy for tacos, fries (told ya) and tea. Hopefully, this will keep me going and I won’t have to go foraging like a hungry cat for dinner later.
2:30pm: I find a seat on a comfy leather couch upstairs on level three and hope that no one comes and kicks me off because it’s really nice up here. There’s an installation of hanging swanni jackets by Courtney Pellow that I’m digging big time. My husband Clint texts me asking if it’s our cats’ birthdays today but I think we’ve missed it for the third year running. Is it just me or are August birthdays really hard to remember?
Courtney Pellow coats hang from the ceiling in the restaurant.
4:00pm: I take my seat for the New Gen Couture show next to the lovely Trish Peng, a bridal designer who I’ve previously interviewed for FQ. We watch as beautiful embellished gowns sashay down the runway across three different collections from up-and-coming couture designers. If you’re into sequins, hand-beading, voluminous skirts and flowing trains, this is the show for you.
5:00pm: I’m being hosted by the OPI team for the Hailwood show in a private lounge upstairs at the NZFW venue. I arrive quite early, which gives me plenty of time to check out their new Peru-inspired collection and take my nails from naked to a lovely blush pink with a shade called Machu Peach-u (how cute!). I eat one arancini ball, three cauliflower fritters and a teeny little tart – the perfect pre-show snack to keep me going.
6:30pm: The Hailwood show too features cats – but the cat depicted on the front of the most perfect slouchy sweater is more like a female lioness. Still counts.
7:30pm: It’s time for the final show, Lela Jacobs, so I hail a cab and high-tail it up to K Road with the rest of the FQ team. We get there quite late and I manage to squeeze myself onto the end of a bench seat next to Patty Huntington, who shows me some photos she took of the Edmund Hillary show, which looked incredible. I also think I might have convinced her to buy a Deadly Ponies handbag after she admired my favourite emerald-green leather sidekick. The show itself was stunning, with a keyboardist in the middle of the room surrounded by the most magical display of dried flowers which looked like they’d sprouted straight up out of the floor. I loved the blush peach coats.
A model walks the runway at Lela Jacobs.
8:15pm: It’s home time. As we leave, I spot a miniature schnauzer being carried out the door and wish it had been sitting near me. Just as I thought that might be my best animal sighting of the day, I looked to my left just as Lorde walked past with a golden retriever puppy on a leash. Mic drop. Lucy out.
Find out more about Lucy Slight here.
