KEY POINTS:
Juliette Hogan is juggling opening a boutique and sorting her fashion show.
It's seven in the morning and Juliette Hogan is on a Ponsonby Rd pavement talking to a contractor about the best way to expose aggregate.
In a few weeks this 28-year-old designer makes her second outing at Air New Zealand Fashion Week - so why is she talking concrete?
"Well, I would have to open a shop and put on a fashion show at the same time," says Hogan, now striding across the road to a dinky coffee shop.
She's been up since 3am sorting out last-minute details for her boutique launch, and you'd think coffee would be mandatory. But she looks alarmingly fresh-faced while ordering an energising smoothie.
This time last year, I interviewed Hogan shortly before her debut solo show at Air New Zealand Fashion Week.
I discovered she was a big fan of TV's Project Runway, which follows a bunch of newbie fashion designers competing for a place in New York Fashion Week.
Curiously she can't remember her exact state of mind in the hectic lead-up to her fashion show debut. So I remind her.
"You're right, I was anxious. I didn't know what was involved, or how to run a show. I'm more confident this year."
So for the sake of recording this significant period in her designing history, I ask her to keep a "Project Hogan" diary.
September 1
(The day before Hogan takes over her new Ponsonby store and after she realises how much makeover work is involved.)
I've been up since 6am. My brain is too busy to have much sleep, and when I do I just have dreams about my invoice books not having been correctly printed and models walking down the catwalk in bare feet.
I have to make five samples today and hope that all turn out. I'm due in at the shop at 10am for the proper handover and would love to have champagne but that would be a silly idea, given how much I have to do.
I really should go and start sewing.
September 4
(Hogan meets stylist Robert Niwa to work on the runway collection. The photo shoot for the lookbook takes place in the evening.)
It's 8am on Tuesday and I have been up for two-and-a-half hours already and just finished my last pair of pants.
I'm meeting Rob at 10am and am very intrigued to see how a fresh pair of eyes views the collection - and a little nervous too.
I'm not very good at liking my collections immediately after I have finished them. I just get a bit over them. In a couple of days though I will be back into loving it. I think it's just tiredness that makes me feel like that.
I go home and finish off a few things - and remember that I still have to hem a skirt so this will have to be quick, then go into Noelene's and have all my buttonholes done - 241 in total. My sister so very kindly came out and sewed on buttons last night till about midnight. Bless her.
So when today is over that will be a huge relief.
There is so much more to do but I will be able to concentrate on my store a bit more.
I still have to cost the entire collection and get all my selling material ready for sales appointment, run sheets done for the show, fittings, music - hopefully I will be able to squeeze in picking that up today.
Anyhow, must run and hem that skirt.
September 5 and 6
Paint the interior of my new shop with the help of friends, siblings and PR agent Murray Beaven from Showroom 22. I have a clever ploy to keep them working round the clock - ply them with wine, but make sure they don't go writing their names on the wall.
I'm also having fittings with my models and delivering the next lot of summer stock to my stockists.
September 8
I move out of my parents' home, which I have monopolised getting ready for Fashion Week, and move current stock and bits and pieces into the Ponsonby store.
My parents are vacationing in Europe, so they'll miss my second outing at Fashion Week. I'm trying not to think about it. It's sad, because they've been so supportive.
September 9
I go shopping for all the things I've forgotten about up until now that are super important for the store - loads of stuff I imagine.
September 11
I sort all the pricing and selling of bits and pieces for the new winter collection. It's a very feminine collection but very dark and moody. I got a lot of my inspiration from an American band called the National. I called the band in New York to see if they were interested in supplying music for the show.
Well, you never get anywhere without asking.
