My instagram/twitter/FB followers would know that on Thursday I was apart of the Como Shopping Challenge on Chapel Street. Basically, the fabulous Como hotel in South Yarra chose myself and four other bloggers: Jasmin from Friend in Fashion, Jesse and Micah from Raww and Sarah from Style Melbourne to accomplish a simple challenge: Find the perfect cocktail outfit that best represents your style in 3 hours, with a budget of $500! Yes, sounds pretty simple I thought “I will be back with two hours to spare” Ummm no, this is not how the day panned out.

With the temperature reaching 38deg, an entire Chapel Street shopping precinct to shop and with a camera crew following my every movement, things began to get tricky. I decided to stick to one end of Chapel Street to limit my options (and walking) and headed straight to my favourite stores Shakuhachi, Alice McCall, Green with Envy and Astore. In and out of change rooms and always checking the price, I was on a mission to find the perfect look that best represents my style. I finally found the gold KeepSake dress from Astore, it was love at first sight, so, ‘ching ching’ my first purchase was made: $130. I then knew I had to have something from Alice McCall, so I popped back in and tried on the gold mesh skirt that was priced at $199 and was cutting it a tad bit fine for my budget but with a little persistence from their HQ I managed to get 10% off (with good media coverage of course!) so $179. Having this mesh skirt added length to my outfit and a unique element.

I then headed straight to Zu shoes and found some edgy spiky heels that looked much better without the ankle strap, SOLD! with a white clutch at half price! I had $31 remaining and I needed some jewellery. I took to twitter to ask where I should go for cheap jewellery and with thanks to my followers advice I found the perfect necklace at Forever New that had been discounted to just under my left over money.  And I was done! with 10 minutes to spare, 90c in my pocket and a very sweaty forehead!

On my arrival back to the luxurious Como, where I noticed that Benji and Joel Madden had recently stayed, I was escorted with the other bloggers to hair and make up in a beautiful suite with heavenly garden views and a champaign in hand. The Miss Fox team beautified the otherwise sweaty and exhausted bloggers into glamour girls (and boy) and we were ready for our photoshoot in the newly renovated Penthouse. I haven’t modelled in front of such a big audience before so I was a little nervous but also anticipating the arrival of the gorgeous boys from J’Aton who were to judge the winner.

Delicious food roamed the room and Jacob and Anthony from J’Aton arrived. Immediately I knew that these guys, from such a high profile luxury label were actually so humble and so lovely, I had no worries feeling comfortable striking a conversations with them (unlike some designers I have come across, no names mentioned) And so the fun began! The boys chose the Raww team as winners but I can assure you, we were all winners with the fun day we had, the pampering, the clothes, the swanky penthouse and two wonderful men in our company.

Photographer: Amanda Fordyce