Perth Fashion Festival

I was sitting with my coffee this morning surfing through some sewing and fashion blogs, as I do occasionally every day ;) when I saw that a fellow Perth blogger was going to be in the Restyle fashion parade....today....starting in an hour and a half!!

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you'll remember that I (unofficially) took part in the Restyle Challenge, where my outfits had to consist of at least 50% op-shopped items every day for the month of August 2012. Well, today's parade featured the ten Perth bloggers who were officially part of this challenge along with some op shop volunteers who were styled in op shop clothes for the parade.

Op-shopped clothing, bloggers and a free fashion parade, oh my! I could not miss this event. I quickly slung the washing out on the line, grabbed my camera and hot-footed it to the bus stop. Luckily I live quite near Perth city and I found myself hustling into the inflatable-pillow tent, settling into my seat and snuffling through the goody bag with excitement (I know, a goody bag! I was beside myself) with ten minutes to spare.

The show was introduced by a TV presenter from Channel 9, who was wearing a dress bought for $3 from Good Sammy's. So great to see a celebration of op-shopping.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show, especially as there were some bloggers in the parade that I had 'met' online. The clothes were lovely. It was hard to take good photos as I was in the fourth row and just had to hold the camera above my head and click. Here are some of my favourite looks:

Gorgeous, soft leather jacket in yummy orange.

This girl had attitude! 

Fab DIY leather shorts from op-shopped jeans. 

A stunning jumpsuit. 

Amazing dress.

There are some professional pictures of the show here.

After the bloggers came the op shop volunteers. This was a lovely part of the parade as these women, of all ages, were so happy to be there and all looking so gorgeous with their makeovers. The highlight had to be the two visually impaired volunteers who were led down the catwalk with their guide dogs. Even the dogs were dressed up. Again, it was hard to get photos.

So, all in all, a very enjoyable morning.

Afterwards, I popped into His Majesty's Theatre as JJ's entry in the WA Ballet Pinocchio puppet competition was among the finalists and is on display there. After that I browsed through Sass and Bide and Kookai for some DIY inspiration - and found some :) There are some gorgeous things in those shops at the moment. Lots of neon and bright colour blocking that are on my radar for summer. So exciting!