Getting a collection designed and sampled in time is a race against the clock. Things are always delayed and no matter how well you plan. This season was no different! I hopped on the red eye to Milan on Friday morning and home I flew that night with 2 suitcases filled with AW samples.

The weekend was spent swooning over the new samples while frantically studding them at the same time! Late Sunday night, the lunches for the Lookbook team were made, the car was packed up with everything needed for the shoot and off I went to bed.

7am Monday morning, coffee in hand at Block T. I always arrive early to just have a bit of me time before the madness kicks off. Slowly but surely the team arrive, equipment pours into Block T and the smell of coffee and hair products fill the building!

Amber Jean from Morgan is the beauty I chose for AW 13/14. She moves like no other, has amazing freckles and in general is a total pleasure to work with. Michelle Kinsella was on make up for her 2nd Manley lookbook shoot. She’s a dream at doing a flawless finish and gives me the big brows that I oh so love. Kevin Heavin from Toni & Guy was on ‘the doo’! As always, I give Kevin a rough idea of what Im looking for an he comes back with ideas to beat the band. See how easy my job is when I’ve the perfect team!

Linda Conway is the stylist extraordinaire! Linda totally gets Manley, the aesthetic and mostly she’s a terrible romantic so that soft an fairytale edge that I like to throw at everything is 100% understood by her!

Pat McHugh is the man behind the camera for the second time at a Manley lookbook shoot. Patrick’s a dream to work with, terribly easy going and just gets on with it.

3 hours of set up and the camera starts clicking. 11 hours, 27 coffees, 22 sambos, 7 bags of popcorn, too many jelly’s, 32 looks and and 44 cut outs later and we we’re done!

Now, to get everything edited and lookbook printed for Paris in a week … and all while Pat’s wife is ready to pop on baby number 2 …

Manley AW 13/14 Lookbook Shoot