By Gabby Neal
@gabbyneal__
With MBFWA one of the biggest fashion highlights of the year in Sydney, where you’ve got an influx of industry elite walking the streets and attending shows, taking pictures and documenting their week via social media it becomes a bit blurry on the actual purposes and roles these individuals play.
In terms of influencers, they’re our main source of #streetstyle inspiration but what exactly do they do during the week?
To fill you in, we spoke with one of Sydney’s top fashion influencers, Beck Wadworth from An Organised Life, to give us a bit more of an insight as to what goes down in the lead up, during and aftermath of fashion week.
The Lead Up
As a bit of background I have my own brand & blog called An Organised Life & I also work at the Bec + Bridge HQ part time too. This means the lead up to fashion week is really full.
I usually work late nights & weekends for Bec + Bridge organising the final bits & pieces for the show with the team including PR, logistics, sponsors, briefs for our photographers etc.
It’s full on, but we have such a good energy at our office so it pushes us all to do our best.
In-between that craziness I also head into the showrooms to prep my outfits for the other shows that I will attend for An Organised Life. With my work schedule I can usually only attend morning & evening shows but it’s so nice to be involved and to be able to support the designers. It’s always a highlight being able to catch up with all my friends in the industry at the same too.
And then on top of this! I also carry on with my usual bits & pieces for An Organised Life, including my online orders, product designing (my 2018 diaries are due to go to print the week after FW! typical!) etc, etc.
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During The Week/Day Of The Show
During the actual days of MBFWA, I have my schedule down packed & usually don’t have a lot of room for movement – it’s a bit of a juggle between An Organised Life focused tasks & Bec & Bridge tasks / office time.
In terms of An Organised Life it’s a mixed bag of tasks – From making sure I have my outfits sorted in advance for each show (I usually try & wear each designers product where possible), to shooting the outfits for social media, and also making sure I cover any other clients I am working with over the week including jewellery, shoes, accessories.
I also do a few interviews over that week including designers, photographers & models on how they organise their life & routine.
Show wise, I just love to soak up the atmosphere. I always love an element of surprise & brands that push themselves creatively. Helping with the B+B show, I know how much work goes into the planning and execution, so when I’m sitting there as a guest – I love to take it all in & appreciate what each designer has created.
I do try and schedule some ‘Chill’ time in between shows to catch up with friends for the occasional lunch or whatever but I also have to head back to the AOL HQ & Bec + Bridge HQ frequently for meetings, design deadlines, online orders etc so it can be a bit tricky.
I also make sure I catch up on all my emails when ever I am in an uber getting from A to B. And of course, I support as much as I can social media wise.
The AfterMath
For An Organised Life, I don’t recap shows on my blog, however I will support on social media where I can. I love to scroll back through IG and see everyone’s pics – everyone sees each show from a different angle or light & it’s nice to see all the support out there for every show.
Bec + Bridge wise – we usually head out for a celebratory drink or dinner post show. Adrenaline is a crazy thing when your body & brain just keeps going through all the madness & long hours, so it’s nice to just stop post show & celebrate with the team. The day after is always hectic getting all the boxes ticked for sponsors & PR etc, but after that it’s a nice quiet time to catch up & get back into routine.
So as you can see, it’s not all take photo’s then leave. There’s a lot more work which goes into it. For the influencers, because they have such a large following it’s all about showing support for the local designers. If they can get snapped or style an image wearing a certain dress or skirt and that leads to even just one individual purchase, then they’ve done alright.
