Last night was the first ever Nautical Yearbook Fashion Show.
Elysse, my co-worker, and I wanted to come up with a good way to get people to know about the yearbook. We figured there were more than enough people on campus who would be interested in seeing some cute clothes, so we decided that a fashion show was our best bet…in terms of getting our name out there.
Did the show run flawlessly?
NO.
Saying yes would make my nose grow a la Pinnochio.
Before the show even started, in the days leading up to it, we had people who committed to it not show up. Models who had expressed interest couldn’t bother to show up OR even respond to our emails. In a major scuffle, we managed to reign in a handful of models who were AMAZING and who were the most helpful girls we could’ve asked for.
We had also decided to use musical numbers in between each set of clothing…in order to give the audience more of a show, and to let the girls have some more time to change before they had to be in an entirely different outfit. We originally had had two acts line up…and then one cancelled, AN HOUR before the show started. After many complimentary emails, we managed to get the second act to bring a few more songs that he could play.
Our emcee came together at the last minute. We had originally had someone, who wound up backing out (surprise!) and I wound up begging a girl in my class enough and she agreed to doing it a few hours before it started. She was amazing though, so it all worked out in the end!
The night before the show, Elysse and I sat on YouTube FOREVER and found some amazing mash-ups for the girls to walk to. I managed to get them into an MP3 format and burn them to disc. Of course, minutes before the show was set to start, the disc decided not to work and we ran around like chickens with out heads cut off, looking for a solution.
Because of this, we started very fashionably late, which just added more stress to our shoulders.
Trevor, being the doll he is, gave me his cell phone at the last minute and we were able to play the songs from there.
The one thing that DIDN’T go wrong were the clothes.
I loved every single look we put up on that stage and the people who helped make last night happen (Blush Boutique, Krystal Savanella Designs, The Cove Bookstore) were the most helpful and amazing people we could have asked for. Each business was more than willing to do what we asked and went above and beyond in making the night possible.
I know that the models felt gorgeous in the clothes they were wearing…which made our jobs so easy!
My uniform of denim on denim for the night, JCrew and GAP.
Originally, I was set to model in the show as well. Of course, when the time came to it, everything went wrong and I had to be backstage helping all the girls get ready.
I was so proud of the little backstage nook that we created (out of rolling racks and tablecloths, no less), that successfully was able to give the girls their privacy.
At one point, when a girl was trying to get dressed and we were running out of time, I had to jump out on stage and do some sort of dance with one of the male models, but it gave the girl enough time to put the last of her outfit on and run out on stage.
Overall, was it a good experience?
In the sense that I learned A LOT about what to do and what not to do, yes.
Producing a fashion show requires SO much work, as it’s not simply just putting an outfit on a girl and watching her wear it. We had to book student models, advertise like crazy, organize fittings, contact clubs who wanted to table at the event, get raffle items, set up an order for the clothing, transfer rolling racks, design a backstage area, create music, write scripts and so much more. It was in no way as easy as we had expected it to be!
Let’s just say I need a few months before we start planning another one…!
