KEY POINTS:
Anna Fitzpatrick, presenter of ALT TV's weekly fashion bulletin 'The Seen' blogs from the front lines covering Rosemount Australian Fashion Week.
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SUNDAY: My cameraman Dan and I leave for the airport at 4.20am and arrive at Sydney airport at 9am, only to find the camera's tripod bag had gone A.W.O.L - not a good start to the week.
Enter Nick Clegg, designer of NZ label Federation who, among the throng of other Kiwi's flying to Sydney with us today, finds our missing gear in a corner by the baggage carousel.
I breathe a sigh of relief - a week's worth of shaky catwalk footage would not have made the boss happy!
Our first taste of Rosemont Australian Fashion Week is the manic 'Marking of the Spot'.
Usually this is just a photographer's and cameraman's job, but I thought I would come along and help Dan out as he'd never filmed at a fashion week before.
As we were both virgins in this ever-important task we came completely unprepared!
We soon realise that we need an 'Alt TV' label and a roll of gaffer tape to mark our spot.
I kindly ask one of our fellow media friends and trans-Tasman bosom-buddies if he would spare us some tape. Not a big ask, I think to myself.
"Nah, no one is going to give you any tape sweetheart!" he snaps at me.
How rude, not a good first impression.
I'm glad I wont actually be in the media pit with these people, but my heart goes out to poor Dan!
To mark the spot there is a hierarchy system.
We were told all media with yellow dots on their passes were allowed to go in first. Surprise, surprise, the yellow dot was absent from ours.
Next came holders of the red dots. No luck there either.
Last and definitely least were the poor media deemed unimportant enough for a coloured sticker, and that was us. Oh, the glamorous world of fashion!
So all of the 'important' people go in and we are left standing outside with 20 other spot-hungry photographers waiting for the green light to run in and grab the 'best of the rest' spaces.
Once inside, I discover I'm quite good at this fashion week ritual.
Maybe it's because I'm a girl and the men feel like they can't push me around, but whatever it is I make the most of it and claim prime media real estate in all of the three major venues.
We even succeed at getting our spot marked out with a traditional bit of Kiwi D.I.Y 'Alt TV' written in lipstick and Bic pen using paper and tape given to us by one of the only other women there. Good to see the women sticking together at least.
Tomorrow the first day of shows....
* Catch ALT TV's 'The Seen', Tuesdays, 8pm, on Sky channel 65.
