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On Thursday night I attended the 2008 Replay catwalk cocktail party and grand final of the Replay Faces modelling competition at the Oxford Art Factory. It was freezing outside so I was pretty pleased that I arrived a little late and avoided the queue. Once inside the New York styled basement club, Sydney’s terrible weather became a distant memory.

The atmosphere was warm and homely. The local art on display is the clubs decorative showpiece and looks similar to stuff I’ve seen in my friend’s parents living room. Hundreds of Sydney fashionistas were in attendance, dressed in their best winter threads, sipping on champagne until that ran out and they were begrudgingly forced to switch to Peroni or Frangelico unless of course they wanted to PAY for a drink.

Being from Brisbane, dressing up in winter gear is always quite a novelty. Even at this time of the year most of us get around in a nice T-shirt and jeans. Sydneysiders definitely make a bigger effort to look good. However, they could learn how to loosen up a bit and have a good time.

The catwalk show and grand final was hosted by the forever smiling Erin Mc Naught. It featured 12 finalists that were selected from around the country to be in the running for a $10,000 wardrobe from Replay, new LG phone and 12 month modelling contract from Chic Management.

I must say the judging panel did a great job in selecting the finalists as they all looked hot! Replay’s spring summer collection looked innovative yet solid and consistent throughout. I was feeling pretty envious of the guy would go on to win the $10,000 wardrobe.

The crowd probably wasn’t as responsive as they could have been given the great amount of talent that was on display. Erin’s effort to encourage the crowd to cheer and make noise as the contestants paraded on the catwalk was met with little response.

In the end, Queenslanders Lorae Misipeka and Nick De Jong were announced as the Replay Faces for 2008, continuing the sunshine state’s trend of producing so many great looking and talented models.