Night of fabulous fashions

By Lia Bichel
PASTELS, short dresses and bold floral headbands dominated the catwalk at an inaugural Berwick Village Fashion Parade on Friday night.
Two hundred guests attended the sold-out event at Akoonah Park Centre, where Berwick’s top fashion designers and clothing boutiques showed off this season’s hottest trends.
Berwick Chamber of Commerce’s executive assistant Lorraine Warren described the night as absolutely fantastic.
“Everything flowed nicely, everyone had a great time and people showed up begging for tickets – unfortunately we had to turn them away because there wasn’t enough room,” she said.
Ms Warren likened the event to a Melbourne Spring Fashion Show, with wine tasting by Let’s Unwine, gift bags with vouchers from Berwick businesses and talented local models.
“Models were clients of some of the fashion boutiques and three personal trainers – Natalie, Cameron and Jaqueline – from Genesis,” she said.
Models dressed in upcoming trends, as well as fashion for the races.
“There were still a few long dresses, but there were a lot of really short ones,” she said.
“For men, stripes are out. There were a lot of light-coloured suits with bold, printed ties.”
Hairdressers from Vision Hair, Gosh Hair and The Workshop styled the model’s locks, while make-up was provided by Terry White Chemists with Estee Lauder, Chanel, Clarins, Napoleon and Natural Glamour make-up.
Fashion was provided by Cherry Closet Fashion Boutique, Elite Footwear and Fitness, Gilda, Harry’s Male Fashion, Pol Boutique, Port Phillip/ RM Williams, Emma Marie and The Sewing Room.
Local fashion designers Martina McCarthy showed off her Martina Lucinda line and Tisha Rebello also showed off some of her latest designs.
Ms Warren said they wanted to say a big thank you to everyone involved.
“We want to make this an annual event and hopefully, next year, we will have some more local designers,” she said.
“Because there was so much interest, we might even have two shows in one day or over two days.”