Rachel Smalley, Samantha Hayes and actress Antonia Prebble look on during the Sera Lilly runway show. Photo / Getty Images
As the fashion followers retreat and designer divas take a bow, a fashion rookie writes about what she learnt at Fashion Week 2010.
* Like beauty, fashion truly is in the eye of the beholder. One lady's haute couture can be another's fashion faux pas. Whilst you may rubbish that spaced-out ensemble teamed with a vacant look, the propah lady sitting next to you may be oohing and aahing over it. So what
if it is the kind of stuff you thought you'd never wear in your darkest moments - think before voicing your airy-fairy fashion views.
* It's hard work being a celebrity at Fashion Week. Not only are you expected to spend a fortune on your wardrobe and look like you've just walked out of a beauty salon/spa, but you need to cross your legs right and make sure you zip in and out for a dress change if you are going to be shot by the celebrity-hungry paparazzi - like the regular suspects at every Fashion Week, Petra Bagust and Keisha Castle-Hughes, who take that extra effort to don different outfits as they dutifully pay homage to each designer and their show.
* The bloggers have taken over the fashion universe. They probably have the first word if not the last when it comes to expressing an opinion. Suddenly, it seem like they're swarming the red carpet as little armies of perky, self-righteous bloggers are getting front row seats and an opportunity to roll their eyes at the lesser mortals who have been there done that - but are not just quite there!
* To survive those four or seven days of fashion exhaustion, depending on how addicted or involved you are, you need to be on an energy high. Don't care if it is energy pills, coffee or champagne - whatever your choice of poison - you need to cope with all that air-kissing and polite conversation ad nauseum, the endless serpentine queues in killer heels to make an entry into the well-touted shows, the blaring music that goes on for seven days and nights - in short, the party that never ends.
* Labels like World, Trelise Cooper and The Carpenters Daughter have such a large fan following it's fun to watch the loyalists claim they follow every collection religiously and salute the designers for what they do. Also, you don't have to be anorexic to belong to the fashionable tribe. Au contraire, you can be fashionable and yet eat ice cream! Case in point being the mango sorbet that was served to everyone before The Carpenter's Daughter collection was unveiled on the runway.
* The most important fashion accessory at Fashion Week is the can't-do-without iPhone. Apart from saying I'm techno-savvy, rich and cool, it makes you look busy as your manicured fingers fly over the with-it gizmo - and then there are those endless snaps-shots of you at the mecca of high fashion. Pics that give you the sole bragging rights to Facebook, tweeting and LoL'ing!
