Divas - you just can't get away from them at any fashion event, even here in tiny Singapore with our still-nascent fashion industry.

Rumour has it that one big-name local designer made a hoo-hah when he arrived at another big-name local designer's debut fashion show one evening last week at the Singapore Fashion Festival. He threw a hissy-fit when he found out that he was not seated in the front row, but had been relegated to the second row.

Adamant that he should not be treated like a second-class fashion citizen, he refused to be shown to his own seat, and demanded that he was given prime property where all the important industry people are. Someone whispered that he had the cheek to behave badly even though he had given the other designer a non-front row seat during his own show. Tsk, tsk.

Alright, maybe designers get tantrum prerogatives since they're the creative brains behind why everyone attends a fashion show in the first place. But even non-designers want their way as well. When one local designer was deemed difficult to work with, the show choreographer decided that he would not want to continue working with said designer anymore. So he hired someone else to continue the dirty work, while he relieved himself of the burden that was the designer's show.

But it isn't just the VIPs of fashion who suffer from self-importance - ordinary plebians suffer from the same ailment too. Those very desirable front-row ones were once again at the centre of controversy during the Mango show last Saturday. Two ladies, who must have been first-time visitors to the shows since they were obviously not schooled in the ways of SFF etiquette, made a beeline for the front row seats, normally reserved for VVIPs and select members of the media. An observant usher asked for their identification tags, and when they could not produce any, were asked to move to another row behind.

The ladies were naturally offended, and it eventually took a polished pitch with an over-generous dose of apologies from one very patient PR person to smooth some very ruffled feathers.