harris scarfe surprises everyone: rundle place vip opening

Recently I started got a job at Harris Scarfe. In the lead up to the opening of the store, I haven’t had a spare second to think (Read: I’m sorry I’m haven’t been posting!). In the past month, I have worked in a warehouse, on a worksite, and helped in setting up a huge department store – definitely a little way out of what I usually do! It’s been an overwhelming, exciting, amazing experience as a whole, but what happened towards the end of the set up definitely shocked me.

To celebrate the opening, Harris Scarfe threw a VIP party, complete with a fashion show of it’s new wares. You may have noticed that Harris Scarfe have really, really stepped it up in terms of their focus on fashion. You would be right in noticing that. Harris Scarfe have really focussed more on trend within the labels they stock, including Luca & Marc, Khoko, Diesel, Calvin Klein, and Boutique – the latter, none other than Christine Centenera styled for the VIP show. This was certainly unexpected, you’d probably agree. What was shocking, was that my manager asked me to assist the woman herself the day before the show, to assist with fittings and anything else she might need.

Assisting Christine with fitting was a dream come true for me. She is a idol of mine, in terms of both her personal style, and her styling work. She was very quiet, and incredibly friendly. As each model would try on their outfits, she would take such notice of tiny, tiny details to make the outfit completely right. If she wasn’t sure, she would start again. That level of perfectionism that is admirable. Her innovation blew my mind – who would have thought about putting white skivvies under the outfit? I wore those in kindy. And my god, did they look good. All in all, the day was nerve-wracking in the beginning (wouldn’t you be nervous? I don’t think I spoke for the first two hours!), but by the end I was in a dream haze of happiness.

So yeah, a part time job in ladies wear, and the chance to assist the senior fashion editor of Vogue. The two don’t generally go hand in hand, but for me they did this time. Definitely a strange turn of events, but my god it was incredible: it was amazing watching her work. Obviously I am starting my career in styling myself, so being able to watch her style ten outfits really was inspiring beyond belief.

Boutique boasts a range of drapey, oversizes items, including sharp black shirts, cocoon dresses, graphic print draped pants, soft tees with contrast panels, and thick trench coats with leather trims. All with a colour palette of black, royal blues, with a few elements of silver and beige. It really is a gorgeous collection, but it is quite simple, so I was really interested to see how Christine was going to style it. Adding long black gloves, touches of gold and/or clear accessories, and roll neck skivvies to tie in the pieces, Christine really made each look very different and very expensive. She also really made me want a pair of black leather gloves.

The show was really quite amazing, and I promise I’m not being biased in saying that. I was really overjoyed during the show, because I knew the calibre of show was higher than Adelaide usually sees. It was classy, the styling was great, the music was subtle and in no way gaudy, and the Finesse Models who showed were all amazing, as well as Harris Scarfe ambassador and face of Boutique, Kyly Clarke. After the show, I had more than ten conversations where people were surprised and really positive about the show, saying things like ‘Harris Scarfe have really stepped it up’, and ‘why aren’t all the shows in Adelaide like this?’ which was obviously more than wonderful to hear.

all photos by the wonderful Chanelle of Not So Naked

So yeah. Well done Harris Scarfe! Well done Christine Centenera and her team. Well done Belinda Humphris and Charley Venning, who styled the other Harris Scarfe labels in the show. Well done Lara Inc. Well done Joe Barberis, on the opening of such a wonderful store. Well done everyone who was involved in the production. But most of all, well done to the team of people I’ve worked with over the past 5 weeks, setting up this huge store and making it look amazing – very hard work that has 100% paid off. If you haven’t had a chance to go visit Rundle Place yet, I highly recommend it. It looks super great. Even if I am being a little biased, this time.

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