The following weekend as the fashion celebration continued throughout Sydney, Royal Australian Fashion Week gave fashionistas the opportunity to buy from some of the designers along with many others at Fashion Weekend. Held in the Royal Hall of Industries at the Entertainment Quarter in Moore Park, the venue was chock full of stalls set up to sell to the general public at heavily discounted prices (which I personally and gratefully took advantage of: HELLO my darling new leather handbag was $490 reduced to $190). Stalls contained racks of clothes, shoes, bags, skin care, nail polish, fragrances and accessories from labels such as The Cassette Society, Shoes of Prey, Billion Dollar Babes, Life With Bird and Meow Girl. Even Nintendo appeared, showing off their hot new DS machine and ever popular Wii Fit console).
One of the other popular stalls of the day belonged to Essie. Created by Essie Weingarten, the cult American nail polish brand has grown from its original 12 shade production into a 300+ nail polish shade, nail treatments, nail accessories, spa products, and lip glosses global company available in over 250,000 salons and spas in 95 countries. Fashion Weekenders were served by two delightful men who outlined that for a small fee you could select one of the many Essie colours [the choice of colour came from either a small mini pack of Essie colours (which I chose - It included a mini Angora Cardi, Midnight Cami, Mink Muffs and Pink Parka) , a colour from the back wall (which included one of each of Essie’s colour range) or a colour/top coat combination], then proceed to the nail bar and have a mini manicure done by one of the Essie nail girls who were there to paint and show you how to wear anyone of Essie’s extensive and fabulous colour range.
Essie was a clear favourite stand of the day, as the constant line of people waiting to get their nails done and the little Essie bags walking around the Fashion Weekend stalls could attest to. I should point out they were a favourite of the crowd and a favourite of mine. I got them to apply the shade ‘Angora Cardi’ on my nails and at the risk of sounding sensationalist; it is the most perfect nail colour in the world. It is long lasting (a big deal for me) and very wearable with most all colours.
I also think Essie should be commended for being a big presence at and contributing to Fashion Weekend. As an offshoot to Australian Fashion Week it’s fantastic to see an international brand supporting Australian fashion!
NOTE: Essie products are available for purchase from Australian online beauty site Adore Beauty.
