Hello lovelies,

Phew! What a night last night! I know I have only been on the job for two nights so far, but I can say with definite certainty that the festivities of last evening were the best yet!

First stop on the night’s agenda was the after-party for Juliette Hogan at Bonita in Ponsonby. Kate and I popped in to say a quick hi but then decided to push on in an effort to see where all the ‘secret’ fashionistas were hiding out when they weren’t seeing and being seen. Second stop was regular haunt Chapel which was themed á la Français to tie in with a crepe evening they were having. Deciding that Chapel probably wasn’t the haunt of the glamour set that night we enjoyed a quick rosé for me and a cocktail for Kate before heading off to SPQR. Settling ourselves down on a bar stool we ordered a magnificent platter and enjoyed its scrumptious fare, while we waited for the Kirrily Johnston brigade to arrive.

Shortly after 8.00pm the team arrived – consisting of the gorgeous Kirrily, her sales and marketing guru Nicole Dun, the delightful Laetita from Australian publication ‘Oyster Magazine’, little darling Anya Merryfield (fashion and beauty editor for nzgirl), the beautiful Helen Schwass (International Sales and Marketing Manager for Linden Leaves who sponsored Kirrily) and last but not least, girl-of-many-talents Lou Draper (Rockstar-PR-slash-Linden-Leaves representative). Kate and I rocked on over, air kissed to our heart’s content and met the team. Unfortunately, Kate had to dash back to laptop to recount the day’s runway action but after feeling thoroughly welcomed, I decided to settle down with my vino and begin the enjoyable process of getting to know the team.

Nicole (who has such flawless skin!) is a bit of an old hand when it comes to fashion weeks, and definitely appears to have her finger on the pulse with all things fabulous. She’s a great conversationalist and avid supporter of Kirrily’s work. When chatting about the show’s models, Nicole gushed about a certain Angelique – who is apparently, according to all around the table, one step ahead of all others. As soon as they saw her beautiful smile they knew they had to have her – and she in turn was touched that for the first time, a designer had asked her to smile in a show.

Laetita is a sweetheart, she’s so passionate about her job and has been enjoying New Zealand so much that she spent half the night on the phone to her editor seeing if she could extend her visit (she was meant to be on a 7.00am flight back over the ditch). Fortunately, her begging was successful and she’s set to stay in the country for another day or two. Lucky us!

Finally, Kirrily. What a fantastic woman! In the month’s lead up to the week, she found herself working around the clock 24/7 (looking at her, you couldn’t actually tell she had been a slave to the workroom), but from what I hear, the work certainly paid off as I hear she put on a brilliant show earlier in the day. Dressed in (what I assumed to be) her own designs, you couldn’t help but feel a tad jealous that while some of us were a tad cold from the night’s breeze, she was beautifully wrapped (elegantly draped, delicately cocooned!) in one of her capes – the kind of piece which by hook or by crook I intend to own in the very near future (am a big fan of wrapping up warm and if you can look great doing it, that makes it all the better!).

Across the room was the Nom D crowd, obviously celebrating what would no doubt have been another brilliant show and the gorgeous Jessie Gurunathan with boyfriend Jay Reeve appeared to have enjoyed an evening at this famous Ponsonby establishment. By the looks of things, the rest of the ‘crowd’ looked like they had been busy pounding the runway all day and were treating themselves to a much-deserved refreshment. I realized I was in the land of ‘anything goes’ when I met a fine young chap coming out the ladies’ bathroom – apparently he hates using male toilets and instead prefers those with more of a feminine touch (good on him I say, ours are much nicer…I assume!?).

Not wanting the night to end Lou and I decided to take our Australian comrades (by then, the others had called it a night) next door for one last drink. It was highly amusing when after settling in to the dark depths of the Ponsonby Social Club, Kirrily admitted that she thought we were taking her to the neighboring Video Ezy for a drink. Hardly (sorry Video Ezy, but I think the PSC could outdo you in the cocktail stakes any day). After bringing Japanese slippers back into fashion (with the exception of Lou who drank the cocktail equivalent of a yard glass) and it was time for me to call it a night - after pinkie-promising to see everyone again soon.

I had been warned by others that for this week one should live slightly in fear of the designer gods (and their associates), but you couldn’t help but warm to Kirrily and the girls, and I wish her every bit of success as she takes on the world.