Togs and Trappings: Back Stage at a Fashion Show

Last night I had an opportunity to be a model dresser for a fashion show put on by a very prestigious department for a client. It was my first look into the world behind the runway. I had been imagining Model rushing around, people screaming, make-up and hairdryers everywhere, basically organized chaos. So how was my first foray into behind the scenes fashion? Eh, kind of boring. After getting there and looking through the 5 outfits I was to help put my model in (which took about 10 minutes tops) I then stood around for about one and a half hours making small talk with the other dressers. That was followed by about 20 minutes of activity once the show started. Then another 20 minutes of boredom.

Overall though, I did get my model dressed pretty quickly. They never had to yell for her, so I pretty much did my job. And I'll give runway shows the benefit of the doubt in that it was a very small show and I think the organizers wanted to hedge their bets a little by having the dressers show up so early. Plus it was really cool to see all of the designer clothes up front. The clothing came mostly from the Spring Ready-to-wear and Resort collections from Giorgio Armani, Prada, Dolce and Gabana, Laundry, Emilio Pucci and Marc Jacobs to name a few. It's pretty safe to say that I was lusting over most of the clothing.

Here is the Giorgio Armani snake print dress that my model wore for her first outfit. It looks less shiny in person. I think it would look perfect for a night on the town with a leather jacket to give it a little bit of an edge.