New Zealand Fashion Week (NZFW) 2014 is finally upon us, and as designers are gearing up to show their collections, we’re preparing for a week of short deadlines, multiple shows per day, and lots of mingling. We’ve compiled a list of essentials necessary for staying organised and surviving fashion week intact. Here, we list our tips (a few of our fellow fashion-week-bloggers have contributed to this ‘fashion week essentials’ write-up) on pre-show prep, on-site must-haves and after-show care. From setting your out-of-office notification, to the perfect bold lippy, our fave footwear, through to fashion week etiquette.
First things first – you are no doubt going to miss a tonne of emails while you’re immersed in Fashion Week, so turn your out-of-office notification on and let PR’s and anyone else trying to contact you during this time, know when you’ll next be coming up for air!
Pack your camera, a fully charged battery and a spare memory card the night before. Newbies to fashion week, take note… an iPad is NOT an acceptable form of capturing images. Using an iPad during any runway show is not fashion week etiquette! You’re simply blocking photographer’s shots and annoying everyone around you.
Phone/Charger – charge your phone overnight and pack a charger. There will be access to power in the venue and a bloggers gotta ‘gram & tweet right?!
Laptop and charger – hopefully you’re lucky enough to have access to the media room, where in between shows you can get a few of your write-ups completed; and without a laptop (and charger) you will be losing valuable writing time.
Bring a notebook – as old-school as it may sound in this digital age (and yes, I know there are apps for keeping notes) trying to type on a phone while models are drifting down the runway is near impossible and you don’t want to forget the important details now do you? A notebook is a neccessity for writing about all the detailing on the garments, remembering the hero prints and all other newsworthy information. Plus, just as I prefer a book to reading a novel on a Kindle, I can’t go past a fabulous notebook, like this ‘fucking brilliant journal’ from macyhome.co.nz 
While still on ‘media room’ access – I highly recommend headphones if you are hoping to pump out those editorials (admittedly I’m far too swept up in catching up with out-of-town friends that I don’t get to see all that often as we all come together for NZFW, to put on headphones) but be warned, the media room can be a hustle and bustle of noise, especially if you’re in there at the same time as me, Anya (from Beautiful Bedlam) and Sopheak (from SopheakSeng.com) – our laughter is loud and aplenty!
Label your gear! I cannot stress this enough! In the media room, chargers are flying back and forth, coats and jackets are swept up in a flurry as editors scramble to make the next show. Phones, notebooks, water bottles, laptops and cameras through to cardigans – most of our gear all looks the same. Cue shameless plug… I was lucky enough to receive a Brother P-Touch Label Maker earlier this month (my partner in organisational crime) and being the OCD freak that I am, I WILL be utilising this to stamp my mark on all my gear (yip – it even prints labels for clothing/fabric). If you don’t happen to have media room access, you should still label your gear, as NZFW does have a ‘lost and found’ box and yes, there are still some honest people out there that hand in items they’ve happened upon (I even had someone chase me out of the main runway room as they saw from a few rows back that I’d dropped my phone as I stood up and they followed me until they could return it. Bless you phone-returning stranger!) 
Business cards – bring them, a lot of them. Fashion week equals making new friends and networking, networking, networking!
Bottled water and Nurofen – Champagne at 3pm can cause headaches by 9pm.
Keep your nails in check – bring your nail polish with you to touch up any unsightly chips. If you’re OCD like me, or just want to ensure you’re nail-faux-par-free, having the same colour in your bag as you’re sporting on your nails will make touch-ups easy! We’ll be donning ARTDECO’s new spring range – Art Couture Nail Lacquer… 
Footwear – wedges, sneakers and flats are your friends! If you’re a heels wearer – I suggest you keep a pair of ballet flats in your bag – preferably a pair that are compact, such as Fairy Feet. They’re so incredibly handy to pop on between shows and they come in a range of colours – you can check them out here: www.fairyfeet.co.nz
Sneakers are totally acceptable form of footwear at New Zealand Fashion Week and I for one will be sporting sneakers to a few shows. My sneaker of choice will be either my trusty converse, or a pair of the never-fail, New Balance kicks… 
A snack bar or fruit – just in case there’s no time to go out for food… sure, there are generally some snacks in your goodie bags, but you can only live on Jaffas and Liquorice Allsorts for so long (and trust me, I survived on these items alone for an entire day last year, the sugar come-down wasn’t pretty!).
Downtime and afterhours – I recently received these new eyeSlices (reuseable eye treatment pads) and my first thought upon receiving them – they are going to be a lifesaver during NZFW. I’ve already been trialling them in the run up to fashion week and I’m in love! They deliver five key active ingredients to address five common eye concerns. It’s a good excuse to put your feet up and take five minutes to relax – while combating premature ageing, puffiness, redness, dark circles and tiredness around the eye area. RRP $37 (which includes a pair of eyeSlices® pads and a clam or storage container to store them in between uses). For more info head to www.eyeslices.co.nz 
Beauty essentials – these are our beauty must-haves during NZFW… Lucas paw paw (for dehydrated lips, to apply to blisters caused by heels, to combat unwanted blemishes, yeah it’s an all-in-one balm). There was no way we would create a ‘beauty essentials’ piece and not include MAC Cosmetics… MAC strobe cream (we all own this right?) the perfect hydrator/illuminator/foundation base – ahhh the list goes on, it does A LOT! MAC Face & Body foundation for touch-ups throughout the day; and since we’re still infatuated with MAC’s ‘The Simpsons’ collection (available in-store 4th September), we’ll be donning one or two key pieces from the range. And our number one ‘go to’ bold lip colours for NZFW are: MACs Ruby Woo, Lady Danger & Pure Heroine.
If we’ve left any ‘fashion week essentials’ off the list that you think should be included, we’d love you to share yours with us, so leave us a comment and let us know.
Gurl Interrupted A Girl Interrupted By Fashion, Beauty & Anything Pretty That Catches My Eye
Can’t believe you left off the anti-static spray! #afriendshipisborn xx
I was going to add that as a ‘bring along’ but then thought ‘no, we made a deal’ I won’t even go there #friendsforlife xx