Fashion Show

Come ‘On Board’ the Development Committee Fashion Show

The St Cuthbert’s Fashion Show, run by the Year 13 Development Committee, is a highly anticipated event in the College calendar. Held with Auckland Grammar, over 300 students, VIP guests, and parents, gathered in Clouston Hall one lunchtime for a wonderful hour of music, fashion on the runway, goodie bags, spot prizes and more!

A huge thank you to all the fashion houses for “coming onboard” this year – Ilabb, Dressed by Meg, Under Armour, People Like Us, Ruby, Three Wise Men, Thread Rentals, and Gregory; and to our sponsors – VitaSport, Prescription Skincare, SOPHIE Jewellery, Tan in the City, Tasti, The Remarkable Chocolate Company, MONDAY haircare, Dose and Co, Essano, Toto Pizza, Citta Design, Kapiti, Clarity, By Violet and Kokomo. Thank you to our Fashion Show partner – Auckland Grammar School.

The Development Committee leaders, Marilena Crisci and Alexandra Lyne, led the organisation of the event, and pulled together a fantastic show, which was titled ‘On Board the St Cuthbert’s Airline.’ Key fashion houses generously lent clothes for the models to wear, and other sponsors donated terrific items for the goodie bags and spot prizes. The money raised through the ticket sales has gone to support the Sporting and Cultural Achievers’ Fund. We sat down with Marilena and Alex to find out more about their experiences organising the show...

Q: How did you find the organisation of the fashion show?

Alex: It was a really good experience for building our management and leadership skills, because, logistically, it’s quite a huge event. There are many different aspects to it; getting the models and clothes organised and giving the other development team members specific jobs. Making it all happen was logistically challenging, and we were grateful for the help we had from St Cuthbert’s staff which assisted us in making the organisation of the event run smoothly.

Q: When did you start planning the show?

Marilena: We started planning the Fashion Show in our first committee meeting all the way back at the start of the year. We honestly didn’t know if we were going to be able to hold a fashion show this year due to the uncertainty around lockdowns, but we were lucky to get it in just prior to the August lockdown! Right from the start, we created different work teams, so that everyone could have their own roles.

Alex:Key to the planning was having individual subcommittees to help pull together the event, including a clothing team, models, sponsorship, sales and marketing, which all had different focuses within their group. Not every person had a specific, defined role, because there were so many different roles that were continually changing. For that reason, we were asking people to do different things, but it was always within their little subgroup that they had said they wanted to be in at the start of the year.

Q: Was it easy to work with the fashion brands?

Alex:The brands were lovely to work with, and it was great exposure for them too, because even afterwards I had people come up to me and say things like “Ruby’s new collection was just great”. All the models we had walking in the show were super confident with what they were wearing, and it was great to see them wear such amazing clothes. We chose brands that are so popular in our age group, and at St Cuthbert’s, so we thought it worked really well.

Marilena:Working with the brands was brilliant. They were brands that had had previous contact with the College, and we had some connections through friends and family of students in the committee as well, which made it a lot easier.

Q: How was it having the Auckland Grammar boys there?

Marilena:The Grammar boys were definitely a highlight. They all participated and were really respectful. They were a bit nervous, but it worked.

Alex: It was really good to have them. Obviously, a lot of the St Cuth’s girls were very excited about having them there, so it was good to have that partnership with them. It was also good to get as many brands as we did, in particular some male brands, as it broadened our horizon on what brands we could include. Ultimately, I found that having the Grammar boys there played a large role in the show’s success.

Q: What was the highlight?

Marilena: For me, the highlight was probably seeing the whole theme, and everything come together with the music and the clothes. Once we saw the run-through of the show, it was a ‘yay’ moment because it came together really nicely, and it was what I was envisioning it would be. Alex: My highlight was building leadership skills, making new friendships and being able to raise money for the Sporting and Cultural Achievers’ Fund. On behalf of the committee, we would also like to extend a thank you to Director of Marketing and Communications, Suzanne Joyce, teachers Ms Gail Morrison, and Mrs Debbie Waalkens, the Production Team and SSL, who all added so much to the calibre of the show.