#sharkiesunite

[nhaquyen]

#blackmilkclothing #bmnorcal #sharkielove #sharkiesunite #blackmilk #latergram

[somebunnies]

i have dreamed of doing this for so long. finally acquired the #bmpoliceboxdress to wear with my #bmgalaxyblackcape so i can be THE TARDIS IN SPACE. @blackmilkclothing #blackmilkclothing #blackmilk #bmsmall #bmosfa #bmusa #bmsocal #bmnorcal #doctorwho #tardis #drwho #bmaddict #sharkiesunite #sharkies

[deanie-dhampir]

Took my not-so-little-anymore little sister to meet another sharkie while I spend a whirlwind 24 hours in Kerikeri. #blackmilkclothing #bmc #bmnz #bmau #bmbonemachinevsgalblueinsideoutdress #bmcommandoskaterskirt #purplegalaxies #ewkerikeri #canigohomenow #sharkiesunite

[somebunnies]

straightened my hair today, I feel like it gives me 'bitchy resting face' @blackmilkclothing #bmc #blackmilk #blackmilkclothing #bmcapsleevelacetee #bmhexcolourdress #bmmattebackleggings #bmsmall #bmaddict #sharkiehood #sharkienation #sharkiesunite #bmusa #bmootd #nylonadddict #shiny

[somebunnies]

black milk triple threat @blackmilkclothing #blackmilk #blackmilkclothing #bmc #bmusa #bmootd #bmaddict #bmreversesuspenders #bmflappyhosiery #bmneonauroraskyedress #suspenders #tights #flapper #nylon #sharkiesunite #sharkienation #sharkiehood @bmrepost @mrshark_bm

[pauseforasecond]

Sharkiecon 2013

Sharkiecon is an annual convention held by Black Milk Clothing for their fans who are called 'sharkies', hence the name :) It runs for one weekend and it's held in Las Vegas, Nevada. I'm not sure what the final numbers were this year but apparently there were nearly 250 sharkies!

A number of BM staff flew over for this event including: James Lillis (the designer and owner of BM, also known as JL or the Emperor); Cam Parker (brand manager and big bro to all the sharkies); Bonnie Cee (photographer and megahottie); Jovy-Anne Fletcher; Alex Caton; and Lana Adams. There are probably a few more amazing staff members who went that I've missed.

So the BM staff along with a few local sharkies spent months planning the con. The logistics involved were crazy - organising discounted accommodation; sussing out venues for all the events; co-ordinating 250 girls who all had to register and purchase tickets for final numbers to be locked in; bringing over samples and prizes and goodie bags. The list could go on. These guys put in some serious effort to make the weekend go smoothly and they did such a fantastic job.

Now what sort of stuff goes on at Sharkiecon you may ask? Well I wanted to blog about my entire experience so now that you have a little background I'm going to dive right in:

I was all packed, dressed in an old discontinued pair of BM and the newly released Harry Potter Gryffindor basketball jersey. My first time wearing heels to the airport. I was standing all ready to go outside my house, waiting for my friend Jojo to pick me up and take me and friend Tash to the airport. It felt surreal. Seriously, who goes to Vegas for only one weekend??? I had packed 40 pieces of BM for 3 days and my luggage looked like I was going away for a month. Jojo arrived with Tash and we left for the airport.

We arrived, stressed, checked in and made our way to the Koru Lounge (Tash and I had won free tickets). Nothing had really set in...we were sitting in the lounge having a drink and relaxing and the idea that we were about to fly to Vegas was just too insane to really comprehend. I feel like we sort of floated through the experience in a way. Like it was just a dream.

Eventually we were on the plane. Still in disbelief. We cuddled up, watched movies, ate, and slept. 12 hours later we landed in LAX. We found our way to the gate for our flight to Vegas and we felt like we hadn't even left NZ. But then we bumped into another sharkie! Angie came and chatted to us and we all managed to sit together on the flight. And it was such a short flight because suddenly we were in Vegas. Tash and I took a shuttle to Mandalay Bay. We watched the buildings on the strip coming closer and I felt Sin City simmering with promise. But I still felt like my head was a day behind in processing everything.

Once we arrived at Mandalay Bay we went up to our room and met our room mate - Chiara. Bearing in mind we'd only ever spoken to her online before! Looking back on it now, how did we manage to end up together? It felt like fate. Chiara was the best room mate we could have hoped for! I feel like that just made the trip even better. I felt myself relax. We stood inside our room, looking out at the strip and somewhere in my head a little voice was like "YOU'RE IN VEGAS!". But there was no time to think! We only had 72 hours in Vegas and we weren't going to sit around waiting for it to hit us!

Tash and I did an outfit change then we went to see The Bodies exhibit. It was eerie. And creepy. But fascinating and shocking. I had no idea how complex our human bodies really were. Biology did not prepare me for this! So many little arteries and veins, muscles, bones, skin, organs, nerves...how the hell do doctors even do what they do? It's like a god damn nightmare looking at the amount of things inside us. I have a new level of respect for surgeons. Then we got hungry (yes even after looking at dead people!) so we had some dinner at the Luxor and then took a bus ride to the Freemont experience.

The Freemont experience is basically a giant outdoor mall strip with a massive roof covering it. The roof is made up of screens or LEDs or something...not entirely sure but whatever it is they play a light show on it every hour for around 10 minutes. It was pretty cool! Lots of colour and awesome displays played to old school music. It was pretty! But after an international flight and an entire evening of sensory overload we were ready to sleep. It was 1am by the time we got back to the hotel. I took a shower, Tash took a bath and we hit the bed.

The next morning we were up early ready to do our hair and makeup for registration. We all wore our Sharkiecon basketball shooters and Tash and I wore heels. We headed down to the lobby and suddenly there was a mob of sharkies all crowding the elevator area. We were running up to other girls saying hi and introducing ourselves and taking selfies. ALLLLLLLLLLL the selfies! An organiser came down to take us up to level 61 (swipe card access only). We walked through a door that said "Black Milk" above it and we entered a suite to register, collect our goodie bags, try on the new Solestruck x BM shoes, and run our hands along all the clothing that girls could try on in the fitting sessions! It was like a magical place of lycra and shoes and friends and photos...I can't even describe how much fun it was. We look at the view and chatted to JL and Cam and met Jovy and put on as many wristbands as we could. It was so much to take in. Eventually we headed back to the room. I think at that point we all sat down and went through our goodie bags and just sort of took stock of what had just happened. I think I was in shock...my body was in shock from being SO HAPPY. I was practically on cloud 9 at that point. We didn't have any official events until later in the afternoon so we did an outfit change and left to go shopping.

Let me just say, American shopping IS THE SHIZZ. I feel like we pay SO much in NZ in comparison. We went into Forever 21 and I found a cute jumper for $13, a bomber jacket for $15, a shark singlet for $15, and a Hello Kitty pez dispenser. We bought some cute lingerie from Victora's Secret and I fell in love with all the stores in the Fashion Show Mall on the strip. We ran out of time to do more, but more than happy with my haul we headed over to the Bellagio fountain for the podcast that BM was filming. Every Friday BM does a podcast where JL talks about new stuff coming up and shows off a few sneak peeks. So we all gather at the fountain and there's like 250 girls just casually sitting and standing (see the pic!) while other tourists are stopping and taking pictures and videos because they have no idea what's going on. Bonnie is filming JL and we're all cheering at the top of our lungs. JL mentions that they have girls from NZ and Tash and I are like YEAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! And then it's over and a bunch of the girls who admin the fan groups took a picture in our sheriff swims and we were milling around chatting for agggggggggggges with people!

We raced back to the hotel to get ready for the main Sharkiecon event - the Friday night party at the Hard Rock Cafe. We change and we're exhausted but Tash and I kept saying "we only have 72 hours here! STAY PUMPED!". So we kept grooving! We head to the party and we gobble down food like we've been stranded on a desert island for days on end. We did have time to eat much after all the running around and shopping and meeting people. In fact we didn't really have a lot of time to stop and have a full meal because it was go go go the entire weekend. So we're nomming finger food and drinking these things called Sharktinis! They are...AWFUL. Haha. But I kept chugging them back because DAMMIT I'M IN VEGAS! And I was going to party hard :D

Annnnnnnnd we totally did. We danced and we mingled and we ate ice cream and then JL sat us all down for storytime! He told us all about how BM started and how amazing the community is. He talked about fun new things coming up and he even talked a bit about one of the NZ sharkies who died earlier in the year and how they did a memorial post for her. Seriously this brand is so connected with its customers, it's so incredible that they do so much for us. Then it was prize time! TASH AND I BOTH WON A PAIR OF LEGGINGS EACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so stoked! I won a pair of unreleased Four Seasons Leggings. They're a beautiful art house piece. We kept drinking and dancing and taking a million photos. And then we all left to go clubbing. My name badge buddy fashioned me a balloon penis and I ran around sucking helium out of another balloon and freaking people out on the strip. It was glorious! Drunk Jess came out to play :P At the club there was a bit of an issue and they told us all the male sharkies had to pay to get in. So we all chipped in to get them in so they didn't have to pay but in the end Cam sorted it out. The club was average. I was getting sleepy and I wished we had stayed at the Hard Rock. Chiara and I ended up getting a cab home with Alex and Cam. Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep finally at around 3am after I drunkenly called my boyfriend. That ended up being a $20 call because he lives overseas. Haha. Oops. It felt like Friday lasted 3 days in itself. It was so so much to take in. At this point it had definitely hit me - WE'RE IN VEGAS! SO CRAZY!

Annnnnd then I woke up...with the worst hangover I've had in months. I don't drink a lot back home. My head was on fire. I felt like getting out of the bed was some sort of hell. But I had to keep going. We dressed and went to breakfast where I managed to get some eggs and bacon down. I had my sunglasses on inside and I wanted to curl into a ball and sleep for a day but after breakfast we went straight to the Mandalay Bay Shark Aquarium. I got changed in the lobby floor by maneuvering my clothes underneath my basketball top. It was hilarious. All I need to do was change my top thank god. But seriously that was like the most difficult thing to do when you want to vomit errrrrrrrrrrrrywhere. I managed to get through the aquarium visit. Sharks are less cool when you feel like your insides are dying. Still I managed to get pictures. We went back to the room and I showered and slept for a while to get over the hangover. When I woke up we had to change and go to the suite room again to try on pretty things! Feeling a lot better by this stage and I got to try on a bunch of amazing things - some of which I had already bought online and was waiting for them to arrive. We changed and went down to the official BM pool party at Mandalay Bay. It was a bit cold in Vegas that weekend due to a tropical storm or something so I didn't go in the water much apart from doing a few rounds in the tube lazy pool. We watched JL put on lipstick and try to sabotage people's tube. Fun times all in all. We also made a new friend - Eli! She had this super cute southern drawl and said "ya'll" a lot. Which I love! But sadly she was leaving that night so we didn't get that much time with her. I feel like I made so many cool friends on this trip and they all live so far away!

Speaking of friends, we had some amazing neighbours on level 13. Jamie, Heather, Miriam, and Cory. These American sharkies were all so lovely and gorgeous! Tash, Chiara and I hung out with them a lot over the weekend and seriously this trip would not have been so amazing had it not been for all these incredible girls.

I remember getting ready on Saturday night for the Cirque de Soleil show we were going to - Zumanity - and thinking, holy shit...we leave tomorrow. How did the weekend go so fast already? Zumanity was amazing. There was a lot of nudity and sexual scenes but they were so beautiful. The only thing I loathed was that in between all the performances there was a skit where they made crude jokes and sexual humor. It sort of spoiled the experience for me, because I expected the show to be serious and all about the beauty of the human body and our sexuality. But nonetheless it was a fantastic show! Afterwards we got some burgers and had a sweet chat to our new American sharkie buddies about politics and American culture. It was a fascinating experience actually to ask questions about why things were the way they were in the states. At the time while we were at Sharkiecon the American government was in a state of lockdown (it still is as I type this). It didn't effect us at all thank god. But I felt pretty bad for people who were visiting national forests/sites and those who worked for the government.

Anyway, side tracking! So after a yummy dinner we went to another official event - taking over an arcade at New York New York! Cam got a whole bunch of coins out and we went around racing on the motorbikes, playing DDR, airhockey, basketball etc. It was fun! I was dominating the air hockey tables! I beat Cam and Jamie and a bunch of others...so I challenged JL. Bad bad bad idea. He was VICIOUS. I was legit scared! He hit the puck off the table like 5 or 6 times and both of us got bruised fingers. In the end he beat me 5-4. It was an intense game! I also got a chance to meet the infamous Phil Gorgeous. He was soooooo lovely and really down to earth. Total nice guy :)

We started to lose steam and then the arcade told us they were closing soon so we all took the tram back to Mandalay Bay. We chatted until early in the morning and then finally got some sleep after packing. Once again it felt like the day lasted for longer than 24 hours. It seems so strange that it was nearly the end.

The next morning was a frantic rush to get ready, finish packing and check out. We raced to the last official event - the galaxy photo and breakfast. We missed out on the photo but we managed to take a bunch of photos with our floor 13 girls and JL and Cam. Lots of goodbyes were said when Jamie, Miriam, Cory and Heather had to leave. We all went and had a buffet breakfast and chatted to Cam and JL some more. Finally we had to leave to go do a last round of shopping. So we gave everyone hugs and said some sad goodbyes and made promises to see each other next year.

Chiara, Tash and I went shopping at the outlet mall and also at Caesar's Palace. We bought sooooooooo much MAC because it's so cheap over there. I got a Beemo beanie as well. And then we had to head back to the hotel to get our bags and catch a shuttle to the airport.

At this stage I was in a pretty dark mood. I didn't want to face reality and go back to work and real life. Because that's what Vegas is - it's a pipe dream. A place where you get to be what you want, say what you want, and escape reality. Vegas felt like a dream because in a sense it was. It was a crazy 72 hour trip to a place where you forget about everything except friends and partying and shopping and fun.

Tash and I said goodbye to Chiara and got a taxi to the airport. It was late in the afternoon, the sun was setting, and I was reflecting on everything I'd experienced in the last 3 days. It was sort of the perfect way to leave Vegas. Watching the sun set behind the strip and taking the motorway out to the airport. I felt like I was in a movie right at the end when the main character is narrating their life saying what an amazing time it was and how we'll never forget it.

We checked in, had some food and flew to LAX. We met a couple of Aussie guys who helped us figure out how to get to the right terminal and we managed to change our seats so that I could get a window seat to sleep better. And then we were on the plane. And it was over. 72 hours of pure ecstasy. Probably the best weekend of my life. I felt like I was riding the high of everything that had happened. I watched some movies and eventually managed to sleep but I felt this residual buzz, like I still had a little fire burning inside me. We landed in Auckland and I felt dread. We arrived at 7.30am and I had to go home, shower, change and go straight to work. It seemed like the worst way to come home. I wish I had a day to reflect on things. A day to unpack, calm down, and instagram ALL the photos :D But I didn't. I went to work. And slowly the little fire inside me went out. But I came home and looked at all the pictures and all my stuff and you know what? It was a perfect weekend. Literally perfect in everyway. Despite being tired and sometimes cranky. Despite only having 3 days. Despite coming home to boring reality. That weekend is untouchable. I have the clothing, memories, and photos to prove it and to remind me.

To everyone I met and chatted to, to everyone that organised Sharkiecon, to Tash and Chiara, and Eli and the level 13 girls, to Cam and JL and the megahotties - THANK YOU. Here's to Vegas ya'll. <3