No not Sweden, Switzerland.

Switzerland is like Sweden's cousin that the family keeps hidden in the attic so Sweden can outshine its rival cousin. The end result is now people aren't to aware of it's existence. Except for a few things in the past before the exile began, like watches, or banks, or cheese, or chocolate. The generic memories.

But low and behold the tiny landlocked country is making a come-back. How? By hosting a leg of the Merecedes Benz Fashion Week tour. Yes there wasn't enough fashion to prolong the event to Week but nevertheless Mercedes Benz Fashion Days Zurich is in town. And last night was the Official Opening.

Wrangling a press pass proved to be fairly simple. It's true it's who you know not what you know. Don't try and fool yourself otherwise with your ideas of prevailing morality.

While in the VIP tent wandering around i was amazed at having walked through the wardrobe from the less concerned commeners into the Narnia of the well-dressed where Pims was free flowing and German chatter ensued.

A few designers paid models to strutt their stuff down the runway and i'll tell you what, kudos. Kudos because there was some beautiful clothing going around and to my knowledge fashion isn't the most front running aspect of Switzerland. They have really stepped up their game that's for sure.

However, you can read about all of that elsewhere. I think i'll just focus on the other things i saw that i find worthy of noting.

The actual show started off with some cute mistranslation in cute euro accents. Milan designer Massimo Giorgetti claimed that 'loves the clean hair, the people, the sky' but kept focusing on his love of the hair. It wasn't until the audience realised he meant 'air' that we all collectively made a condescending 'AWWWW'  coupled with approving nods.

There was a nip slip during Marco De Vencenzo show which if i was the vollunteer offered up for the steaming job, i would have quit right there and then.

Mila Schon's beautiful gowns got individual applause as they went down the runway but you could barely hear over the noise backstage (slight exaggeration).

Guest of honour Lauren Hutton, super foxy model from back in the day, was questioned 'Can you reveal me a beauty secret?' Her reply - "Good men." 

Swiss band Pegasus played. Modern day looking Beatles with their suits and carefully 'uncut and unstyled' hair. Not my particular genre of music but can definitely appreciate Noah Veraguth's voice. And that they were hot.

One plug i have to make is the clothing from the aforementioned 'hair lover' Giorgetti and his label MSGM. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. Colourful, patterns, cute cuts, dresses, skirts, jackets, shorts and just good ol' styling. But i'll write something on it sometime soon. Promise.

. Must be important.

. Not bad, not bad at all.

. Full crowd.

. Cute, right?.

. Beautiful women in front of you, get off your iPhone.

+++

RAFW: Never ending story

It has been a long sleep deprived week of model lists, backstage passes and fashionably late call times, but alas, I wouldn't want it any other way. Of course I am referring to the still occurring Rosemount Australian Fashion Week, where i spend my time working for a production team on such shows as Romance Was Born, Dion Lee and Camilla and Marc. For anyone who doesn't really know what a fashion production company does, it's everything - model casting, stylist hiring, hair and make-up allocation, lighting, staging - everything.

Over the past couple of days I've taken a few snaps backstage with the trusty ol' Hipstamatic to show the other side of the apparent glamourous life of fashion shows.

First in the set is Romance Was Born. I've worked on their shows for 3 years now and cannot believe how they seem to surpass themselves every time. It's ridiculous the things that come out of Luke and Anna's minds. This year the theme of the collection was a combination of the roaring '20s and The Never Ending Story. This resulted in a breathtaking transformation of the Sydney State Library, a children's choir for music and their most commercial range yet.

By most commercial I mean by Romance Was Born standards.

Regardless of the afternoon show time slot the call time was still 7am. Every model had an individual hair and make-up look, some taking up to 3 hours to get done.

As for the collection, it was mostly dominated by the 1920's aspect with flowing silks and as always epic patterns.

Venue: State Library. The girls walked along the book levels and down the stairs. Amazing

Time crunch: 2 x hair stylists + 2 x make-up artists per girl

All styled by the sensational Cat Scardino

Model Kaliah wearing a massive silver head. And yes, it was quite heavy.

City scape prints.

Image: Harpers Bazaar

Pearls and chain print

Image: Harpers Bazaar

1920's art deco print

Image: Harpers Bazaar

Lycra unitard. Of course.

Image: Harpers Bazaar

The anticipated 'couture looks'

Image: Harpers Bazaar

As opposed to the 2 hour delay last year, the show managed a reasonable 40 minute delay. Kudos team. Snaps all around

Stay posted for more images and backstage shenanigans from Lover, Manning Cartell, Camilla and Marc, Fernando Frisoni, Therese Rawsthorne, Carl Kapp and Dion Lee.