Retail Therapy: Model for Sera

Designer Sera Lilly is looking to cast 35 models from the street for her show at this year's NZ Fashion Week. File photo / Babiche Martens

Do you want to be a model? If you're 16 and older and at least 5'8" (173cm) in height, now might be your chance. Designer Sera Lilly is set to cast 35 models from the street for her show at New Zealand Fashion Week in September - with one also being chosen to appear in her autumn/winter 2011 lookbook and in an exclusive ad campaign shot with Lilly's brand partner, Number One Shoes. Each model chosen by Lilly and her team will receive professional catwalk training from leading catwalk instructor, Amanda Bransgrove, at Catwalk Studios in Auckland. If you're interested in being Sera Lilly's Next Top Model, you can email photos (one full-length in a bikini and one face shot) to seralilly@gmail.com by the end of today, or head to the Sera Lilly boutique this Sunday for an open casting call between 3pm and 5pm, with hard copies of photos of yourself.

Gok's coming back

Celebrity TV stylist Gok Wan is hitting New Zealand again in August, this time to be head judge at the inaugural Specsavers Spectacle Wearer of the Year 2010 awards. If you think you're a spectacle wearer of the year with personality, confidence and style (that's what Wan says he's looking for), you can enter the awards and be in the running to win a $5000 shopping spree, a wardrobe of Specsavers eyewear and personal eyewear styling session with Wan. There will also be a Kiwi celebrity winner selected. Enter now at specsavers.co.nz or at any Specsavers store nationwide.

A very fashionable trade

Country Road has teamed up with the New Zealand Red Cross for Fashion Trade, a clothing donation programme that aims to raise money for the community and reduce landfill by encouraging people to recycle their pre-loved Country Road clothing and accessories. Take any clothing or accessories with at least one pre-loved Country Road item (which needs to have a recognisable Country Road label) into a participating Red Cross store and you will receive a $10 voucher to put towards your next purchase of $50 or more at any Country Road store. Your donated items will then be sold by the Red Cross to raise funds for the charity. So get donating now, and shop for a cause. For more information on the initiative, visit redcross.org.nz.

Wedding belle

We spotted her collection at iD Emerging Designer Awards earlier this year and loved it - and now Roxanna Zamani's talent has been awarded with a prize at the Mittelmoda Fashion Awards in Italy. The 24-year-old Otago Polytechnic graduate won the 'Wedding Italian Style Award' with her collection that featured repeated and draped material.

Spa at the Hyatt

The Spa at the Hyatt Regency Hotel Auckland has recently gone live with its real time online reservation system via its own dedicated website. Clients can now book treatments directly from home or the office. The only difficulty will be deciding which treatment to choose. Go to spaatthehyatt.co.nz.