Burns Beach beauty Amy Raats goes from blank canvas to the catwalk "It's sort of like playing dress up at a professional level," model Amy Raats said. It's a pretty fun job. Picture: Marie Nirme Source: The Sunday Times A FIVE-MINUTE catwalk strut can involve hours of painstaking transformation. Just ask 17-year-old Amy Raats. The red-haired Burns Beach beauty was one of 10 models working at the local fashion industry's night of nights, the WA Fashion Awards, on Thursday. Behind the scenes, hours of preparation went into her five-minute appearance. By 9.45pm, when she appeared in all her silver glory in an evening gown by local label Ae'lkemi (its designer Alvin Fernandez won Most Innovative Designer), she had spent six hours being primped, preened and painted and waiting. But then Raats, who is with the Vivien's agency, said fashion was partly art, with the model as canvas. "When we arrive we are a blank canvas," she said. They do what they want with us. It's exciting to see what they come up with. 4pm: A fresh-faced Raats arrives at event venue, Brookfield Place on St Georges Tce, a pretty teen in denim shorts and a tank, her hair in a ponytail. She joins other models in a downstairs area. "We have a clean face, clean hair and clean nails," she said. The models spend half an hour learning the choreography for the night, which they run through three times. "I take a notepad and sometimes I write down the choreography and revise it before the show when I'm in hair and make-up," she said. But this was pretty easy. 4.30pm: A team of three begin Raats' catwalk transformation - two paint her body silver while a third does her nails. "It's sort of like playing dress up at a professional level," Raats said. The whole process takes about 15 minutes and she dries herself in front of an airconditioner. 5pm: A team of two turns her ponytail into an edgy catwalk creation. It's serious business requiring some serious products. "All of my head was pretty much rock hard," Raats said. 5.30pm: Her transformation is completed in the make-up chair where her face is painted silver to match her body and her eyes become brilliant blue masks. 6pm: Raats, now looking like a beautiful space alien passes the time backstage. "We were just hanging around," she said. We talk to the other models. After you do a few shows, you get to know each other. 9pm: The WA Fashion Awards begin. About 20 minutes before the show, the models get dressed and at 9.45pm they are centre-stage. Raats' moment goes without a hitch. "I think it was a very different show," she said. It wasn't trying to be like any other show. 10.10pm: Raats' parents pick her up. The silver paint comes off easily in the shower. Perth Fashion Festival director Mariella Harvey-Hanrahan, who organises the annual awards, said it had been months in the planning. She said they painted the models to match the building. "There's a bit of silver in the building and we wanted to continue the theme," she said. I think we pulled off that futuristic look. More than 400 guests attended the night and after-party at Print Hall. Was it expensive? "Yes," she admitted. Lovely things are never cheap, unfortunately.