Affair to Remember by Martini + Coz for Cancer Council WA

Exactly a week ago there was a stylish High Tea organised by Martini + Coz called Affair to Remember. It happened during the Perth Fashion Festival 2009 which meant that I was giving up shooting fashion parades and made myself available for the fundraising event. It turned out to be much more fun than I initially thought it was going to be. It would have been good doing this post just the day after the event though. It so happened that it was a bit of tough business organising myself with thousands of photos I took each day in order to be timely with the processing and doing posts for Style Discovery. So that is my little excuse for those who commented here requesting photos from the event to be uploaded ASAP. I'm truly sorry about the delay. Under the circumstance a week's delay was unavoidable. I also prioritised my festival show posts to do this one and I'm happy to report that the next post will be one on the Student Runway.

When I turned up two hours before the start of High Tea I was so surprised to see how well everything was organised. The tables were all set up. I noticed beautiful tea sets - traditional and elegant. It turned out they were not from a catering company but collected by both Erica and Natasha. That certainly gave a special meaning to the whole set up. They were similar in style but all individual with different patterns. Of course, for the spirit and the theme of the event everything was in pink. I'm not much of a fan of pink but it was so coherent and elegant. So I was happy to see that it wasn't giving me the 'oh so childish baby pink look' but more of a 'oh so elegant lady pink feel'.

Then the food. High Tea without lovely finger food is unthinkable. Sherbet provided lovely pink cupcakes. Margaret River Chocolate factory obviously sent them some delectable chocolate goodness. Erica's mother made shortbread. That was the only piece I tasted and it was very very good. And other food and service was provided Nine Ounce and the family members of Erica.

Obviously, I'm all for charitable causes but I wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for fashion as well. Here's samples of what was shown during High Tea. Here, in the photos we have pinchandspoon and LULU.

When the preparation was finished, right on time, guests started arriving in style. I must say that it is very rare to see such an event to start on time but that's how well thing were organised. The Champaign was flowing and and there was plenty of cheery laughter around the tables.

There was a little introduction of the event by the MC, Anne-Marie Carpenter and the parade started with Martini + Coz. Martini, Erica's fave Audrey Hepburn's charm and Coz, Natasha's cosmopolitan city look, work nicely together to present a coherent look. This collection, designed by Erica, was all about Bali and the inspiration we get from our favourite resort island.

I hope this is giving you a real feel of being there. Because my aim here to tempt you to attend the next year's Affair to Remember. The models walked around the tables and guests were able to see designs quite closely.

LULU's dresses brought some summer breeze. I don't know if you noticed but the models' make up and hair style was inspired by Marie Antoinette. The exquisite curls and huge eye lashes were to-die-for.

Luxx by JJ's shorts gave a new meaning to wearing shorts fashionably. As girls going shorter with their skirts and trews it makes sense to adorn them with something shiny. I must say that I quite like those retro shorts with gold buttons.

The ladies behind this event in support of Cancer Council WA specially for Breast Cancer are Erica and Natasha. Team'd up less than two years ago, Erica being the creative half and Natasha as the business half they have been successfully retailing Martini + Coz and other labels (as shown in the parades) in Australia. Simmone from Cancer Council WA and Mary were there to give talks on awareness of Breast Cancer and the endearing story of cancer survival. Anne Marie was a gracious and ever so professional MC for the day.

Running back to the parades, Pinchandspoon... What can I say about Isobel's creation? It's just exquisite. The collection was created just for the event. Vintage silk and cotton with pearls and crystals gave elegance that is effortlessly cool. Did you see that Erica was wearing a special piece designed by Isobel? She did that for Chelsey as well for the Fashion WA launch. And the whole hair-do worked so well with pinchandspoon's design although some of the pieces had to be cut at the back to go through the 'big hair'. Yep, a little mishap before the show - minor details..anything could happen before fashion shows and that's so little compared to some of the stuff I've been seen backstage of other big shows!

100 or so guests were also asked to purchase raffle tickets to win Martini+Coz and pinchandspoon's special prizes along with other goodies. It was amazing that the raffle tickets alone were able to raise $1,000.00 on the spot for the Cancer Council. Well done, people.

After the final parade by pinchandspoon, Erica and Natasha gave a final speech thanking various people involved in making the event happen. There were so many volunteers and lots of support - the venue, food, serving and helping staff in the kitchen and backstage.

Let's not forget the models from Scene model management who were there for hours for hair, makeup and the parade. FashionWA's Chelsely spent her whole afternoon styling and dressing the models. Well, let's say she was hiding... after having a late night during the festival. :)

That's my rundown of how Affair to Remember ran this year. I got a call this week from Erica telling me that not only they were able to raise quite a huge sum of money selling the tickets for the events as well as raffles but also the donation from the event was $5,000.00 in the end. That's a great success if you ask me. Most importantly, that was the figure Erica was planning on raising so she and her team were able to reach the target. Now we see what that means. She is going straight into planning for the next High Tea. While that's happening she is also going back into the creative phase of designing for Martini+Coz and taking a trip to Hong Kong for a new line for the label. Busy busy.

I hope this was enticing enough to do your bit to support the Cancer Council WA next year by attending another fabulously stylish event by Erica and Natasha. Of course, all the garments you see here are available in Martini+Coz. If your heart is aching with love for pinchandspoon you can find out more from Isobel's website.

I'm back to sorting more photos. Enjoy your weekend everyone.

More photos in Facebook and Flickr!