Maybe you've heard, maybe you haven't... yet, but I'm going to tell you the sad and shocking tale of Iceland Fashion Week 2oo9. After a whole year of preparation and planning, the head of IFW, Kolbrún still managed to fail miserably. How so? ...Keep on reading.
In June the first casting for models was held at Apótekið. I decided to go because I've always liked being on the runway. I got through and my journey began. Two more castings were held at the same place with one month apart. At the end almost 100 models had been picked out to represent IFW. Shortly after the castings were over we were called to practice. Practice what? yes, we were supposed to learn some steps that Kolbrún had specially "choreographed" for the runway... or so we thought. After wasting hours and hours at these "practices" we didn't even use those steps.
In the beginning of September the designers (who had no idea what was waiting for them, poor things) came to Iceland and came to one of our practices to look at the models and pick out those they liked. The designers (the foreign
ones) were around 20 total (the few Icelandic ones had already picked out their models). September 3rd was another casting held, this time at the mall where all the models (all numbered) had to walk round and round through a café while the designers sat down and finalized their picks.
That same day, Iceland Fashion Week officially started with a show at the Lexus hall where Catalin Botezatu showed glamour swimsuits. All went well ...great actually. Later that night around 23:30 or so, Krel Wear had an amazing Glow-in-Dark swimwear show at Apótekið (which is a bar/"club"). There we walked through the crowd with a black-light, flirting with the audience and having fun... and oh yes it was FUN and the show went really well and everyone was happy about the outcome. After a great first day of IFW we were excited about the rest.
The next day (Friday, Sept. 4) the designers, who stayed at the old military base in Reykjanesbær (about 20-30 minutes from Reykjavík), went on a small whale watching boat. The boat went from Reykjanesbær to Reykjavík harbor.
The designers were freezing, some of the
m got sea sick, they had to catch their own food (went fishing) and didn't see any whales. On board 66°N had a few models presenting clothes from them. While we waited for the designers to arrive at Reykjavík harbor, the Icelandic designers were getting ready for their Underground Fashion Show at Reykjavík Harbor. The boat finally arrived shortly after 14:00 and the show started. Nothing dramatic happened there but the show wasn't professional at all. It was windy and the crowd couldn't see the collections really well from where they had to stand out in the cold. Just to top that, the music was played at the small whale watching boat with a crappy sound system.
After the show at Reykjavík harbor we went back to Reykjanesbær because later that night Bao Tranchi was showing her gorgeous collection at Viking World. That show was a huge success, besides the fact that many seats were empty do to the fact that this wasn't in Reykjavík and not many people knew about this show, which was a pity. Even so, Bao had a great show under a huge old Viking ship and everything went beautifully. Big love to Bao, you're awesome hun.
Then it was the Saturday, the big day with the big and main "Walk-on-Water" show. The plan was that all of the foreign designers along with about 3 or 4 Icelandic designers were supposed to show their collections on pure Icelandic water... or so they thought, so we all thought. Kolbrún (the "owner" of IFW) had described this as a huuuuge and amazing thing. She even said "Jesus ones walked on water, now it's our turn!". It wasn't quite like that, not at all! When we arrived at the place were the platform was (in Keflavík, Reykjanesbær) we saw a small platform placed on boxes of Icelandic Glacial water, stacked on the wooden pallets and still wrapped in plastic. Some of them had even been ripped open. The designers weren't happy at all!
Catalin Botezatu opened the show with his stunningly beautiful gown collection. He didn't think the stage was all that great but he still showed his stuff, we (the models) had a hard time walking on the platform because it was un-even and slippery, but we still did it without complaining. You gotta do what you gotta do. When we got in our tents to change cloths there was a group of 12 year old boys gathered outside the tent telling everybody to come and see "the free strip show" that was going on. The tent was open, everyone could walk in there, and oh yeh, it was see-through! Good job Kolbrún!
After Catalin's show there was supposed to be a 30 minutes break before the rest began. The break got a tiny bit longer. One of the designer denied to show her collection on this so called platform simply because it wasn't good enough for her, and may i point the fact out that this particular designer isn't as nearly as big of a name as Mr. Catalin, he didn't complain. Anyways, things started to get really messy and all hell broke loose. Another designer said she wasn't
going to show either and started to tell all the other designers to do the same. We didn't know what the hell was going on and no-one would answer us if the show was still on or not, so we stood there half-naked in the freezing rain (yes it started raining) while the designers were screaming at Kolbrún. One of them even nearly hit her in the face. The police got involved and Kolbrún was going to get the loud-mouth designer arrested. That never happened though. Andrew Lockhart, a friend of Kolbrún for many years and a member of the Iceland Fashion Week crew, gave up and booked NASA (a club in Reykjavík) for the designers who wouldn't show on the failure platform in the pouring rain. It turned out that all of the foreign designers called cabs (because Kolbrún wouldn't let them use the bus she had for them) and went to NASA where they started to prepare their own fashion show, The Rebel Fashion Show.
Three designers, besides Catalin, showed their collection in Reykjanesbær though, after a loooong brake. Two of them were Icelandic and one from Thailand (she lives here in Iceland though). After that was over, the madness in Reykjanesbær, I decided to participate in the Rebel Fashion Show at NASA. The main reason why I did that was because of one of the nicest persons I've ever met, Helen Rödel from Brazil. I had been in a photo-shoot for her collection a few days before IFW and I had promised her to be in her show. So I drove to Reykjavík and went to NASA. There the Krel Wear ladies had taken over the place and were organizing everything. About 30 models showed up and a few people from the hair and make-up crew. Everything went smoothly but I didn't get to show for Helen Rödel because the Krel Wear ladies wouldn't listen to a word I had to say. Designers take us models for granted, without us there would be no show but they don't seem to get that. After I found out that I wasn't showing for Helen but instead for some 4 other designers I decided that even though I now had no reason to be there I still didn't want to be a total b**** and went out there and strutted my stuff. The designers were really happy with the Rebel Show and decided to make it an annual thing.
Finally, Iceland Fashion Week was over! But even though the big show was a total failure and the facts that I didn't get paid at all and hadn't eaten properly for a few days... it was alright. I got great photos and shoes from two designers I really like :D I went to two photo-shoots, one for Rödel L.A. and one for Bao Tranchi and I will appear in New York Magazine and more. So actually, this was a great thing for my career, I met some great people and this week will be something to remember, that's for sure! :)
