Austin Fashion Week

I hate to admit it, but Mai's one AWESOME party kind of overtakes all my exploration of Austin's Fashion Week. BUT I loved her format of her week so much, I'm using it for my Austin Fashion Week. Hope you don't mind, Mai!

Wednesday: After I said good-bye to the girls, I gave a girlfriend a call to see what she was doing for the evening and by a long shot see if she would be up for going out to another fashion show that evening at Qua. I'd never hung out with her one on one before, always in groups, so I was ecstatic when she said yes. Instead of going home, I drove to her house, borrowed a dress, didn't care that I had to wear my flip flops because her shoes were too small, refreshed my makeup, chatted with her while she did her makeup, hair, and changed, and off we went.

At first we thought we missed the show at Qua as well, but turns out it didn't start until 11pm, instead of 9pm like I thought. Yay! My camera battery died, but not before we took tons of fun photos of her and I. Unfortunately I was only able to snap one of the fashion show, and actually she was the one that took it before my camera died for good!

Thursday: I managed to snag another friend to join me on another Austin Fashion Week jaunt. My theory was that if it was a complete dive, one I needed a good enough friend who would still have a good enough time just trying to discover something new with me, and two because I was with somebody I would have a good time any way! Turns out it worked as we pulled up to a place with nobody in the parking lot and started laughing hysterically to ourselves as I said we have to go in any way just to say we did. Then I realized I had got the address wrong. After laughing hysterically even more we finally made it to the right place. Austin Handmade hosted an event with an adorable cake, and way too sugary mojitos. They tasted like simple syrup. The idea of the shop itself was very fun, with everything handmade by Austin artists. It was definitely more of an artsy vibe.

Afterwards we hit up the fashion show hosted by Silhouette. We crowded into a tiny room with $4 Lone Stars, well my friend bought one any way, while I waited anxiously for the tiny cup of champagne to be passed around as I tried not to hyperventilate being stuffed into a room with one hundred other people and willed myself not to go sit on the catwalk in the middle of the room solely because it would be a good place to rest my bootie while I waited. The show came and went in less than four minutes, but in those four minutes we saw male models with t-shirts and jeans. Apparently I missed the highlight of the t-shirts, which was a Morton salt shirt. When the girls came down the aisle, I finally realized it had been worth it. So adorable in their 1950's vintage designs with their hair and makeup all done up. I got a few photos, but was still learning how to use my camera in low light situations, so I edited them the best I could, and here you go.

We found a parking spot near Silhouette and decided to keep it while we hoofed it down to Qua for yet another fashion show. This one I was SO excited about as it was showcasing a lingerie line by Texas Next Top Designer 2009, Megan Summerville. She will be showcasing her collection at New York's Fashion Week, so I really felt like I was getting a small preview to what life might be like in New York. At least, a life in the fashion limelight. This fashion show was my absolute favorite! It started out very dramatically with three girls fully cloaked in heavy velvet, with giant afro wigs.

Then came girls in short almost burlesque style lingerie, very shiny and silky.

Next came a regular dress type of line.

Then men for Ties That Don't Suck. They were so embarrased in their teeny tight briefs with three ties or more tied around their necks, and two more around each arm. A few of them walked quickly through, but one or two rolled with the punches and strutted their stuff.

Finally came Megan Summerville's adORable lingerie line, with models who made you, as my friend put it, "I want to give her a sam'ich."

And the highlight of the evening Megan Summerville herself.

Friday: Jen was taking me out for my birthday this evening, but I managed to coerce her into stopping by a Fashion Week event first with the promise that if it blew we could hurry onto dinner. Oh, and how convenient was it that it was just across the street from where we were eating! Yes, I definitely used that line as well. Actually, besides the fashion shows this turned out to be my favorite event. It was an entire mini spa experience at Kisma.

There were Caribbean Foot Soaks,

Caribbean Hand Treatments,

eyebrow waxing and skin consultation, eye treatments, back massages, Chakra foot massage,

scalp massage, makeup touch ups, updos, wine, catered food,

all completely complimentary. It was AHmazing.

Apparently they do this once or twice a year for their clients, as a client appreciation day event. That is reason enough for me to become a client! The girl who did my Caribbean Foot Treatment happened to be a hairstylist and I just may end up giving her a try. We ended up spending a good two hours there before we headed out to dinner. After dinner, we hit up one more event at Waterstone Aesthetics. Unfortunately this was not quite like the other events. They did have some cocktails in paper cups, and while it was a nice salon, they just didn't have enough going on to really experience the fact that it was a salon. There was some jewelry on display there, that I'm not sure if it is there regularly or itf it was a trunk show and there were supposed to be live models walking around, but I only saw one getting her hair done in a definite fashion week style. It seemed almost like a company party we were walking into as a lot of the people seemed to know each other and were partying it up and randomly dancing to the live dj, but there was definitely not a dance floor. We made a circle, chatted to a friend of the model, took a picture, and headed back out the door.

Saturday: I hit up my first boutique during the day, Wish on the drag. They had a GREAT live DJ spinning in the front and rocking out in his cute black and white argyle sweater and pink accents. They had delicious looking Hey Cupcake cup cakes in the back that made me wish I hadn't just eaten a cookie at P. Terry's! I did grab an Izze while I perused their clothing, sale items and $3.50 earrings, which I ended up grabbing a pair of. Fun store, though! I can't wait to go back! Funny thing is I remember three or four years back I asked a girl where she got her cute dress and she said Wish or dream or something like that. I never followed up on it, but this was the store! Later that evening Genie and I had planned on going out again so we got an early start at 5pm. It wasn't quite early enough, though, because we missed the fashion show at Peyton's Place, and instead walked in on the two sales girls being completely overwhelmed by the amount of shoppers who came in and were pleasantly surprised they weren't outrageously priced like the quality of items they had appeared to be.

The poor sales girls were a bit flustered, and after walking around a bit we finally asked for the champagne to calm our own nerves and continue our shopping. Me, who loves to shop but follows thru unless I'm with someone, found an adorable bracelet and another glamorous pair of sunglasses that I LOVE. Ones I like are so hard to find! I was so distracted by the fun shopping, the champagne, and the fajitas from Pappasito's that I completely forgot to take pictures so the one above is from their blog. Genie and I both walked away from there totally in love and vowing to go back. I'll definitely be making a stop when I finally do my Saturday morning browsing of all the new 2nd street district shops that I've been promising myself I will do! Afterwards we ended up laughing at ourselves again when we made six circles around a block trying to find TRIPP custom t-shirts. You look at this sign and tell me if you can find it!

Needless to say the iPhone map didn't serve us very well and we almost gave up before we found it. And so glad we were! This one was definitely a close second favorite of mine after the spa services, and absolutely a favorite in it's own category.

We lined up for the free Lone Star beer, making sure to tip more than it was worth actually! Lone Star beer is the running joke around here as the cheapest beer, and this was my first time trying it. As ice cold as it was it was surprisingly good. Even after drinking it all night, I had no hangover the next day so I might be sold. Cheap beer or not, it did the job! Genie and I walked around and looked at all their fun shirts. There were too many favorites for me to remember. Now I'm wishing I had taken pictures of all the ones I loved! We exhausted the store then found a front row seat outside to watch the White White Lights who were AMazing and I can't wait to go see again.

We then got treated to a performance by the B-Boy City Breakdancers which were a blast to watch.

Then cooled off with a performance by UME and their head banging long blonde haired singer.

Seriously, I couldn't take my eyes off that flying hair. Completely satisified and SO happy we had made it out another night just to experience that store and their event, we headed down the street to Cream Vintage for our last Austin Fashion Week event. Genie was in vintage heaven as she may've found her ultimate go to store. After getting a mouthful of whip cream at the entrance (no joke) we walked in and perused their completely one of a kind items,

listened to the band at the back with their lead singer who very artfully had three beer cans in her hair.

The most fun part might've been watching the make shift go go stage with the employees dancing as wanna be go go dancers.

Towards the end, about five of them were up on the tiny little four foot by four foot stage framing each other with an empty frame, dancing their hearts out, and being generous with the whip cream!

A very fun ending to a very fun week. While I breathe a big sigh that I made it to at least eleven events I can not WAIT to go to even more next year, and am so grateful to Matt Swinney, along with all the incredible designers here, that he is helping put Austin, who is already on the map for so many other reasons, to put Austin on the fashion map. In the end it is truly the designers that will do it, but he has facilitated the voice. I love my town!

You can find a list of all the participants here.