Fashion dilemma solved with the power of celebrity (Perth Fashion Festival 2011)

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Following is a lesson in Fashion Marketing - the power of the celebrity endorsement.

Imagine you’re going to see the Story of Tang, one of the hot ticket items at the 2011 Perth Fashion Festival. Now add in the fact that one of the event sponsors, hair stylist Maurice Meade, has organized your ticket for you. Your mind tells you you’d better get amongst your wardrobe and see if there’s anything remotely fashionable lurking in its depths, but your heart just says, panic!

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Instead you adopt the usual strategy that has served you well in the past - you get sidetracked by work until the eleventh hour, thereby eliminating days of shopping, trying on outfits and basically, more panic!

The day comes. You sleep late, the morning passes, lunchtime ends, the afternoon blurs, early evening sets in and you can’t put it off anymore.

You venture into the shower, wash your hair and after drying it discover that, for some unknown reason, you've taken on the fluffed resemblance of sideshow fairy floss, minus the pink hue thankfully.

Straightener to the rescue you start to breathe again as your hair falls back into a style that would pass on any norm day. But this is the PFF and Maurice Meade…no pressure! Looking around the bench, the small number of hair products you usually rely on, appear to have conspired against you, and run off to join the infamous Bermuda Sock triangle. What to do?

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Thinking Museum, where the event is being held, you start fossicking under the bathroom cabinet and soon put your hand on a large tub. Phew, saved by the hair gel. But on retrieving your hand you find yourself clutching a tub of ….Draino. Not good. In a moment of sheer desperation you ponder whether your fluffed up ‘do’, could be tamed with olive oil (extra Virgin ofcourse), in lieu of hair wax. Thankfully you decide against it, and resign yourself to constantly running your hand through your hair for the next two hours, in the hope of stimulating its natural oils.

Hair tragedy averted, you stand in front of your wardrobe for half an hour wishing something to emerge, a la the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Eventually you settle on a tried and true outfit and think, not to worry you’ll be sitting up the back anyway.

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Half an hour later, entering the WA Museum you instantly lament not taking more time, as hundreds of fabulous outfits stream through the door. Taking your seat you look at the row immediately across from you  - designer Christine Tangs ‘bestie-model’ friends Tiah Delaney, Amy Finlayson and Sonya Kukainis along with Kim Ellery. Just as you try to slink a little lower you see it…relief is at hand. Some poor couple have rocked up in tracksuits, tracksuits! All is not lost.

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Looking closer however you realise that far from being a fashion mistake, this was actually a deliberate fashion statement, a new venture for Chad Fletcher and his girlfriend Teagan Phillips, in their Onzies. Slinking lower still you ponder if you’ve ever felt so out of touch

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As you sit waiting for the show to start your mind drifts back to the Perth Women’s Expo earlier this year, and an insignificant stall at the back of the Expo.....Bam’z Quirky Bitz n’ Bobz was the title.

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Central to the stall was the heading ‘America’s No.1 Pyjamas, Big Feet Pj’2s, footed pyjamas for men, women and children’.

The flyer boasted the ‘All in one footed PJ’s with optional butt’,.... true.

A fairly sad looking stall, displaying its wares on a wire coat hanger, it was overlooked by most show goers. If only they knew.

Little did you think you’d see the ‘All in One’ rise like a phoenix, and take up front row position at the Perth Fashion Festival.

In a clear case of Fashion Marketing 101. .....Take a product, any product, modify it slightly to suit market tastes (e.g. replace the bumflap with a zip for easy ablution access), add in a celebrity endorsement, and there you have it….from the bowels of the Perth Women’s Expo to the front row of Perth Fashion Festival in less than 12 months. Let that be a lesson to you

Personally I’ve decided that if I attend anything next year I’m going in my long johns. What? Don’t laugh I’ve just read that David Beckham has launched his own range – true story. One mans idea of fashion is another mans…..