Sydney fashion show a washout as models go underwater

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - Australian fashionistas plumbed new depths on Wednesday, staging an underwater fashion show with lots of flailing arms and a mass bad hair day.

With no catwalk in sight, nine sharply dressed models climbed up a ladder and plunged into a large tank of water in Australia's first public underwater fashion shoot, delighting tourists and passers-by in Sydney's picturesque Circular Quay.

"I felt sorry for the hair and makeup artists because they spent so long doing my hair and makeup and as soon as I got in it just washed away, but it's all fun", said Jaynie Seal, a television weather presenter who was part of the show, sponsored by women's magazine Cosmopolitan and skincare label Neutrogena.

Braving cool spring temperatures, Seal and another TV presenter, Jason Dundas, waved at the cameras underwater and tried to look glamorous.

Later, Dundas stood shivering in a dripping wet suit as a team of photographers took pictures of the event.

"It's fairly hard to look glamorous under water. We had to get specialist make up that doesn't run, said the official event photographer Daniel Smith.

"The hair and the hands can go everywhere, the success rate is less, so you just take more pictures." (Editing by Miral Fahmy)