Harvey Nichols Fashion Show in Gleneagles!

"Oh my Geee! I'm in a dead posh room, on my own. I honestly don't belong here...!"

I arrived, fashionably early... an hour early, to be exact. And was greeted by Maxine, a member of staff at Gleneagles who took me to a room, which was really fancy ... I felt so out of place. I was then offered complementary cakes, coffee and tea - after I had already bought a coffee, I might add. And it wasn't just any bog standard cakes or pasties or anything, they were proper fancy. And the blueberry muffins were simply amazing!

"Meg? What are we doing today?" "No idea..." "Okies, let's WING IT!"

Megan eventually arrived after about 45 minutes of me being of my todd, and we ran around the room taking advantage of all the freebies! As you do! The models arrived soon after, to get their hair and make up done, and we immediately the guilt of eating so much cakes kicked in! They were so tall and slim, and grrr... so pretty! Megan, to be fair to say, was speechless and fell head over heels for a blond, tall, muscular model... so funny! We didn't know what to expect out of the day, and we basically winged it!
Eventually Louise arrived along with the backstage team, and Kevin Stewart, the organiser of the Fashion Show, and we had a cheeky little intern meeting before our briefing and finding out our roles etc etc...

Precision, precision, precision...

We then met Kevin Stewart, the organiser of the Fashion Show who briefed us with our roles as 'dressers', and introduced us to the other four dressers. While the model's hair and make up was being done, us six dressers set up backstage making the rails, setting out the outfits and matching the shoes for each model, paying perfect attention to the order of the way they'd be worn in the show.
We then had a mini intern meeting before our lunch, which made us want to diet as we were sitting amongst the models! Megan and I felt so guilty going to get seconds of the stilton and broccoli soup...

"There's only three spaces a year... GET IN THERE!"

During our lunch we got the chance to talk to the other dressers and ask them how they got into their line of business. Three of them had just worked their way up to their position from being general sales advisors and had been working there from seventeen years old. One of the dressers though was an intern and had been working with them for a month after graduating from her Business Degree. Harvey Nichols takes on three interns per year, and to apply you hand in an application form and a cv then attend a series of interviews.

"How on Earth do they get so pretty?" ... "You didn't just ask that did you?"

We then had some relaxing time while we watched the run-through of the fashion show, to give the models a chance to practise walking in the shoes. I then met the models that I would be dressing, one was a Japanese model called Erin, and a European model called Kristina. They were both so beautiful, so jealous! haha
There was quite a lot of hanging around during the day as the dressers weren't needed until the actual show and, obviously to set up so we just double checked that the shoes were in the right place, along with alarms being removed, and the appropriate accessories were on hand.

"Just get them undressed, dressed, and get 'em out there!"

The Fashion Show started at 4pm and was being held for the Aberdeen Oilman's Golf Association, and ran really smoothly, despite us all being really stressed out with only one minute to undress and dress two models for them to join the line for their next appearance.
I mis-matched the shoes once, but apart from that it went really well! Erin went out first, and Kristina soon after, but then they virtually came back at the same time, I found out that undressing two models at a time is no easy task! It was really hectic backstage, as the space was so small for us all to be in, and because of me and Megan doing it for our first time! The other dressers were really lovely and gave us help or input whenever we needed it, which really calmed us down too!

"It's over already...?" "I know, just think ... we'll never see the McQueen shoes again... - sigh-"

The show was approximately an hour long, but only seemed 10 minutes backstage! Me and Megan fell in love with a gorgeous pair of Alexander McQueen shoes, which we ended up fighting over as we packed everything away... the last time we'd ever see those shoes... we were heartbroken! haha
The overall experience was amazing, and a really good fun day! I got so much out of the day, and it will be really great to put on a C.V. to say that I've worked with Harvey Nichols.
I learned so much about this area of the industry in just one day of working with them, and I'd quite happily do it again!!
We have plans to meet up with Kevin again at Harvey Nichols next week.

Jenni Kelman.
Events Management Intern.