A whole bunch of people came up and thanked me last night and in my usual perverse way I said no, it's not me you should be thanking! To my mind, I can have a great idea, but it takes a team of talented people to make it happen and it also takes YOU. A KMD catwalk wouldn't work if we didn't have the loveliest, most enthusiastic and gorgeously eccentric bunch of fans! I know you all helped to get us there, supporting us madly all over the place.
In no particular order here is a list of just some of the folk who deserve more thanks and indeed, more cash, than I can give them:
Maz: Maz is our press person. She found the venue and worked tirelessly on getting the press and industry there, as well as pulling in other brands to make it even more extravagant.
Charlie: We've never had an intern for a year before and honestly, I don't think it would have been possible for me without her. She did all the communicating with the catwalkers, so that all I had to do was turn up on the day. Needless to say, we'll be rootling to get her back after she graduates, and if any of you are marketing undergrads looking for a sandwich year, well, we're going to have a gap.
Joe: you know he's an ex-Blacksmith, right? So yeah, he made a metal corset. expect more. Expect them to be crazy prices, because kids, these have to be made one at a time by master blacksmiths. In forges. Oh yeah.
Rachel, Rose, Michelle and Katie: the rest of the team and temporary knickers-degree intern have all been sewing their hands off to customise the outfits, and negotiated free gifts, not to mention putting giftbags together and then hauling them around. Apparently people don't know that's a thing. It really is a thing, you basically have to make a row of boxes of all the things that have to go in the bag, and then some poor lummox has to pack 300 of them up. It's like envelope stuffing, only much worse. Michelle probably also spoke to each of you at some point!
The Tabernacle: I'm not sure they knew what to make of us initially, but they definitely liked us by the end. Also this may sound ridiculous but unlike most places, I didn't have to spend 2 hours after the end of the show cleaning up any evidence of our presence, and for me that is nothing short of miraculous!
Samm Agnew and team: Hair and make-up. I've worked with Samm a few times now and she's always upbeat and positive, which is a blessing on such long, high pressure days!
Kezia Argue: Not only did Kezia bring hats that smoked, she also helped heave furniture around and did last minute crystalling.
Twisted Twinkle: A long-time talented crafter friend of mine, Twinkle made the enormous butterfly wings the week before the show!
Prong Jewellery: Studs ands spikes and skulls and spangles, who else would we have at the show?
Irreverent Dance: Amanda runs Irreverent Dance, which specialises in providing dance classes for adult beginners. You know, people who want to dance but are never going to look like darcy Bussell and would actually like to enjoy themselves? She was brilliant. Also she agrees with me about the limitations of person centred counselling, so she must be good, right?
Playful Promises: gave us SO MANY FREE GIFTS. And vouchers.
Drop Dead Chocolates: OK, so we may have sneakily eaten a few of these while packing bags...
Face Lace: I really can't approve enough of shiny things and elaborate patterns for faces that don't involve evicting glitter from your hair for weeks or epic amounts of make-up remover. Plus they gave us the bags!
House of Burlesque: Not only did Tempest organise an amazing selection of performers, navigating around other events and keeping us on time, she also made sure as many as possible were wearing Kiss Me Deadly, and managed to get one of my friends up on stage and dancing. He's so grateful...
Vix Vain, photographer, and Max Allen, the videographer; you won't see much of their work straight away but they pulled a long day and will have the most follow-up.
And last but not least - our amazing, fabulous catwalkers! They travelled from as far as Sweden to be with us, and turned up early, to spend the day learning choreography (NOT easy) and being on stage in front of hundreds of people in Kiss Me Deadly lingerie and swimwear. Some of them I had met before, some were new to me, but all of them were brilliant.
Oh, and everyone who came got vouchers, but we only had the room for 300 of you and half of you are outside the UK... so for this week, have 20% off with the code catwalkyay!
Oh, and you may notice that those outfits have been customised... there is a competition coming!