Wednesday, May 28, 2014

My RVA Fashion Week 2014: Part 8 Show #1 A Tour of Carytown Boutiques

Sunday April 27th, 2014 at 11:00 a.m.

(Photo courtesy of JC Vera Photography)

YAY it was finally time!!  All the workshops and meetings and fittings were finally coming to fruition!  I was so excited to get everything over with and hopefully get some good pictures out of it.

We were told to arrive at Salon Vivace for hair and make-up at 7:00 a.m.  I decided that was unrealistic and silly for me (my reasoning being that there were several shows at different times that day, so logically the people in the earliest show would go first - I was not in the first show) so I arrived at 8:00 a.m. only to find make up artists, hair stylists, and about seven or eight models sitting outside the salon.  Most had been sitting outside for over an hour (and keep in mind this was late April when it was still in the 50’s in the morning).  Turns out no one in charge was there to let them in!  So I'm very glad that I did not try to get myself up at 6:00.

The wonderful Josh Cruz-Magee of Salon Vivace did my hair.  He was seriously the most fun person to work with.  We joked around and laughed SO much.  A new make-up artist (or at least someone who was in the process of learning) did my make-up.  It took several tries, but we still had a good time and in the end I looked lovely.  I wish I could remember her name!  But we were never formally introduced (excuses, excuses). 


We had to be to each boutique 30 min before the noon and 2:00 shows, so I got to Glassboat at 11:30 with the other models…and it was locked!  I thought that was just a funny “Really??” moment for everybody.  But they showed up eventually and we did the run-through.  For this show, we did one runway walk up the length of the store and then went through four “scenes”.  The scenes took place at furniture displays set up in different parts of the store.  I thought this was a really cool idea, but it probably would’ve been a good idea to do a little more planning for each scene before the day of the show.  Several us were blocked in shots, didn’t know where to look, and in the last scene I’m just straight up cropped out of pictures bc I had to stand too far off to the side.  That’s kind of a bummer, bc like I said, I think the idea of “scenes” was really cool and should’ve made for great photos.

(Photo courtesy of Connecting RVA)
(Photo courtesy of Dawn Yilmaz)
(Photo courtesy of Dawn Yilmaz)


(Photo courtesy of Dawn Yilmaz)

Between shows, instead of watching the Ten Thousand Villages show, I decided to do something about my starving tummy.  I stopped into Weezie’s for a quick brunch since it was on the way to Fab’rik.  As I was about to leave, two of my fellow models came in because they were trying to grab a quick mimosa before our show, and of course it didn’t take much for them to convince me to join them.

Then we got to Fab’rik at 1:30 only to find that we had apparently missed the run-through for the show and had possibly (to be read: probably) annoyed the people in charge.  It didn’t help that they didn’t do a great job of explaining how we were supposed to walk either.  It wasn’t complicated, but somehow there was still a lot of confusion/questions (and not just from us, but the other girls, too).

(Photo courtesy of JC Vera Photography)

But it was alright in the end.  We walked a square around the store, then stepped up into the front window where we had an organizer standing outside to motion for us to squish in so we’d all fit.  After standing in window, we got down and went outside to stand right in front of all the spectators.  Then we went back inside to stand in the window one more time and face into the store, and that was it!  We posed for photos for awhile after and then we were able to leave and either go to Mezzanine for an opening day after party event or do whatever we want.  I opted to call it a day.  I had a long (fashion) week ahead of me after all.

(Photo courtesy of RVA Fashion Week FB page)
(Photo courtesy of Connecting RVA)


(Photo courtesy Dawn Yilmaz)
(Photo courtesy of Connecting RVA)
(Photo courtesy of Connecting RVA)
(Photo courtesy of RVA Fashion Week FB page)
(Photo courtesy of RVA Fashion Week FB page)

(Photo courtesy Dawn Yilmaz)

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

My RVA Fashion Week 2014: Part 7 Show Fittings

Wednesday April 23rd, 2014
Tour of Carytown Boutiques Show

I met with employees Ashby and Trish at Glassboat (3226 W. Cary St.) on my lunch break.
I was the first model there, thanks to working full time and getting e-mails about what shows I was in and when the fittings were very last minute.   They weren’t really prepared, but it still only took about 30-45 minutes.  I tried on form fitting Religion dress ($174) with a Totally Brill by Amy Brill poncho ($248).   

Then what took the most time was picking out the jewelry.  LOTS of jewelry.  By various designers and artists, but I’m not sure what final choices were or how much they cost.  I saw the price tags later on the shows, but with all the chaos that goes on during show time I had no chance of documenting prices and designer names.  And for this show, I’d be using my own shoes.  They don’t have any of their clothes posted on-line (that I could find) but for more information on the store you can check out their website.

Then for my 2nd fitting of that day, I hopped over to Fab’rik (3004 A W. Cary St.) where I met with Blane.  I tried on a halter dress ($56) with a gold necklace ($36) and some decently high platform wedges.  

This would ultimately be my outfit after a quick change in shoes to the multi buckle wedge ($54) .  
(Picture from Fab'rik website)

However, I also tried on two pairs of crazy comfortable wide legged pants (the Harrison Pant in Green for $58 and another one for $46) with a jade cropped top...but then accidentally deleted all the pics of me trying these things on!
(Picture from Fab'rik website)

I also tried on a very “Madmen” (IMO) retro patterned dress with keyhole sleeves called the long sleeve shift dress ($62).
 (So I don't look quite as good as the model from the Fab'rik site, but oh well)

And then that was it for me for that day!  Even though it's just trying on clothes, there's something about getting these fittings done that just made me feel so damn productive haha.


Thursday April 24th, 2014
Jewelry Showcase and Finale Show

This was an interesting day because I was counting on the first fitting being REALLY quick so I could go pick up my mom and take her to Wicked for her birthday, and I was counting on the second fitting to be ok with me getting there really close to the end of the designated time because of volleyball. Busy day.

For the first fitting of the day, I headed over to NewNormal Apparel Co. (212 E. Clay St. 1B).  I met with Walker and she was just the nicest person.  And as I’d hoped, the fitting went by quickly.  In fact, it was the fastest fitting I’ve had to date.  Since this is clothing for the jewelry show, the clothing isn’t the main focus for the show and this allowed for Walker to only have two possible outfits ready that were both very simple.  She gave me a cropped black tank top and a high-waist long black skirt and said we’d try the other outfit if that didn’t look good. But guess what? It DID look good. Like, really good. Like, I might go back and buy it after the show really good.  Since these are all original New Normal pieces (made in the back of their store) there weren’t any price tags on the clothes I tried on.  I’ll figure out the prices soon enough (and you can find the prices for their other clothing items on their website).

For the second fitting I headed over to South Moon Under in Short Pump Town Centre for the finale show fitting.  I had three girls helping me out there, so I’m sorry to all of them for forgetting their names! (I was frazzled after volleyball and we were all rushing since they were closing within 30 min of my arrival lol)  They gave me three outfits to try on.  The first was a very loose (HELLO sideboob) Winston White ‘Daria’ Desert Rose Cropped Tank Top ($112) paired with blue and white patterned Walter High-Waist Baroque PrintShorts ($76).  The shorts were meant to be high-waisted, but I couldn’t tell bc it turns out the whole outfit (despite being in my sizes) was too big for me and we scrapped it.  

 (Pictures from South Moon Under website)

Then I tried on a black Zoa Drawstring Jumpsuit ($138) and never made it to the third outfit.  It looked great.  So we found some Steve Madden 'Nellie' Ankle Wrap Wedges ($79.95), a Chevron Braided Stretch Belt ($26), some jewelry (including a necklace and ring, both of which aren't on the website), and a bag (which looked like a metallic version of their Street Level Reversible Tote Bag $68) and I was all done!
 (I think the bag and accessories from my ensemble were better than the South Moon Under site's)


These fittings were all rather painless, surprisingly.  The staff at all the stores were so nice and helpful.  They made the fittings all the more fun.  They (the fittings) were the final push I needed to get all out PUMPED for Fashion Week to start :)