Melbourne Fashion Festival: process to be a volunteer and by behind-the-scenes Look

This year I had the incredible opportunity to volunteer at the Melbourne Fashion Festival!

I was so excited to not only network with other people, passionate about fashion and business, but also to see any new trends for the year ahead.

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For those curious about joining this vibrant community, the first step is to go through the PayPal Melbourne Fashion Festival website. Volunteers send an email to Volunteer Liaison with their interest in helping in the event and after two days they will reply and send you an invitation for an interview or if are you able to send them a video outlining your experience. It took about a week to get a response, but after a few technical errors, it was a pretty easy process to get signed up and started.

Every shift starts at 9 am to 10 pm, but not to worry you don’t have to be there, working for the entire time! Just let them know before.

I caught the train because I hate city parking and the event was at the Royal Exhibition Building. Luckily, there were plenty of other volunteers there when I arrived, everyone was so friendly which made getting started a lot easier and eased any nerves!

The beginning was a time to chill and be open to sharing new experiences and maybe making new friends, you will wait for the manager to start the instruction with around 50 volunteers. Again, everyone was so friendly and there were plenty of free snacks and drinks which is also a bonus!

I felt like 80% of the people there were students of fashion design, 10% of people with a keen interest in fashion and want to try different things in their lives and 10% are entrepreneurs, looking to network and promote their own businesses.

After a quick mingle, we went through a small induction. One of the big positives was the fact you could take plenty of photos and videos, but we were just asked to not publish straight away, so we don’t reveal any of the designers work before they can.

There are a variety of different tasks assigned to the volunteers. They can be anything from moving clothes on racks to different areas and models, setting up collections ready for models and their assistants or assisting the models to get dressed and ready to go out on the catwalk!  

A major highlight for me though was seeing and feeling the energy of the designers as they watched their creations come to life! Seeing the hours and hours of hard work appreciated by those watching was really special and inspiring.

I was working with the Australian designer Steven Khalil with his couture collection a fascinating fabric, in neutral colours, black, with beige, blue, gold and silver. And a lot of small shiny details mixed with lace fabrics. He has an E-boutique for Bridal and formal event dresses like red carpets,  with a range price from $8,000 to $20,000. He has been lucky enough to make bespoke gowns for celebrities including Jennifer Lopez, Emily Ratajkowski, Rita Ora and Kylie Jenner.

Apart from seeing his amazing designs, it was so nice to see how a designer with so much success and experience was still so humble and polite. Something as simple as saying hello to everyone and thanking everyone for their time was so nice and it was lovely to see someone so grateful for the help of the volunteers.

Leaving the event it left me feeling so inspired to continue my hard work with Jali Australia and continue to work on my leather goods designs. There would be nothing more special than one day seeing La Frida or Cleopatra on the catwalk!