Rogue Gone Vogue: vip

Aloha from Hawai'i my friends.

I am here in Hawai'i because I am working at the IUCN World Conservation Congress. This is a 9.000 person strong event; with conservation hero's such as Jane Goodall, journalism guru Thomas Freedman, Government monarchs such as Sally Jewell (Secretary of the Interior of the USA), celebrity sweethearts such as Alison Sudal (who is appearing in the next Harry Potter film!), and lastly: literal royalty; HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco.

And would you believe I'm working with them all!?

I love PR. PR means dealing with VIPS. I typically dislike VIP's for I have come across one too many narcissistic airheads, AND it's a dark manipulative part of the industry... But in this context... I've loved working with VIP's!! It's been amazing helping the do-gooders (just like myself), do good... but with much much more influence than I could ever dream of! Like humble Ali, whom my family and I have grown so so fond of, is committed to being the IUCN's goodwill ambassador (even if that means standing up on a stage and in front of so many people even though someone accidentally stole her speech!).

Or generous Jack Johnson! Who gave a free concert at the opening party to attract crowds from far and wide! Rock on!

Or the icon that is Dame Jane Goodall. A woman who challenged taboos, on top being a woman disagreeing with the predominantly male scientific community in a time when that wasn't as acceptable as it was today. The few minutes I spent conversing with impacted me so heavily through the contagious love and admiration in which she spoke of nature. A truly magical kind of VIP influence. I have really been taken by all these people and done some thinking this summer.. and have decided that it's time to begin merging my two passions: nature conservation and Fashion PR.

How? If I can finish my degree having gained the knowledge of how to manipulate people into senselessly splashing money over items to build an image of themselves (through trends that come and go) solely because of strong branding... I can apply that towards nature conservation!

EXAMPLE: Every single electrical car was as ugly as can be (sorry Prius, but ew.); but as soon as real life Tony Stark: Elon Musk stepped in... and amplified that technology and made it sexy, sold it as luxury to rack in the money, and is soon coming out with cheaper models... the world has reached a pivotal breakthrough! The right business model to create something green that's sexy.

If that makes sense..

This is where PR is needed and this is where I am committed to make a change: I am going to make nature conservation sexy. I will make loving and cherishing this planet, the pivotal sexy image we all desire.

Without further ado; (VIDEO COMING SOON) check out my artsy photo's of Hawaii through my new pain-in-the-ass but gorgeous-when-you-get-it-right 50mm lens!

I had the wonderful opportunity of being able to work backstage at London Bridal Fashion Week these past three days! I was a dresser backstage for the fashion show part of LBFW. I was assigned a model (the lovely Sarah) and I was to help her change from one dress to another. Now there weren't that many models and each model had up to 8 dresses: so the role of dresser was an important one.

Sarah was lucky/unlucky enough to be in almost all of the shows. This was a challenge for us both, because after every walk she was almost immediately needed again!

Considering many of these dresses were made with the idea that brides have a morning to get their wedding dress on: many of the 100's of buttons you see aren't made to be buttoned up in 2 minutes.

But we made it it work; we had a whole team of dressers and everyone was hands on board helping me or each other. After a few times, that lace up dress that needed to be unlaced to the bottom to get on, and laced up to the top again in under two minutes, could be done in one minute.

Everyone took initiative and was helping each other out, we were a real team.

Overall, working backstage was a lot of fun. The organised chaos and pressure to get your model dressed just right and on time just had us all pumping on adrenaline the whole time. We loved it.

After show time, we went from an extreme high to a mellow low: watching gossip girl, chatting and steaming dresses, talking tips with the makeup artists, celebrating with a glass of wine with one of the models, Claire, who had just handed in her last university english lit paper that morning, down at the champagne bar. It was a lot of fun: just one giant hang out with all these new people; who had great stories and talents, but all of us with one thing in common: working in fashion.

Aside from the glamour you associate with a VIP backstage access...

this is what working backstage at London Bridal Fashion Week really looks like!

Building the venue....

Bringing in these delicate beautifully crafted one of a kind goods... by the truck full!

Phoebe testing the runway on rehearsal day. Marieke having a little fun during fittings.

Girls trying on the dresses for the first time.

A beautiful mess.

Sarah and I attempting to look ethereally bridal...

The back to one of my favourite dresses worn by my model Sarah...

The back of one of Phoebe's dresses. Sarah pre-test-catwalk.

The venue was the Old Billingsgate Exhibition centre which was totally transformed for fashion week. We had the best view of the shard and other bits of the City's monuments.

I put on my sunny coloured rain jacket one gloomy morning and by the time I arrived... sun!

Thankfully it was sunny throughout most of the three days!

Enough makeup to paint a room. Or sit on my bathroom shelves.

They should be on my bathroom shelves.

Camilla, Sharon and I steaming away at our dresses to be ready for the first show!

10:00: buyers, individual customers, and general LBFW attendees flooded into the exhibition room.

Marieke being a goofball t-minus 3 minutes to showtime. Makeup team dealing with sweater fluff!

Tricky at times: working around fashion publication teams filming backstage.

The lovely Claire and Phoebe ready to walk.

Sarah being a hero and sewing up a dress that ripped down the back mid show! Disaster!

Seeing as this was my favourite dress, once we fixed it, just to be sure it was still pretty,

I held it up against me and took a picture. (for good measure of course)

Visiting the exhibition downstairs on our lunch break!

Below: How to tie a perfect bow, and the many lovely faces of Nina.

Sweet bridal decorations at the champagne bar and cafe...

Leanne ready to walk!

Chilling in the exhibition hall with the paper flowers...

Veil galore.

Real flower decorations + a real Josephine decoration...

Phoebe's lovely long train and dress... and chilling with Marieke while getting her makeup done!

The models working at the exhibition trying on dresses for buyers and customers.

Our models upstairs ready to walk the designer dresses down the catwalk.

Makeup team hard at work: and the makeup instruction sheets for each of the four shows that occurred each day. (Alternating from A:Designer and B:Bridal)