Today marked the first day of my first ever London Fashion Week. And what a day it was. Having never previously bothered to spend the time emailing designers PR’s personally, requesting invitations, I have never had the privilege of attending, but this year – having made the effort, I suddenly (and amazingly!) found myself with several invites to catwalk shows hosted in the LFW landmark, Somerset House.
Initially, I wasn’t sure about how to present my LFW ‘diary’, as normally having attended events, I tend to waffle on for ages, recalling every last detail (and I understand this can often make it a little boring to read), so I will try and be as succinct as possible!
In addition to attending, of course – for my blog, I also went along on behalf of the company I work for (my 9-5 job) Hostelling International, who are running an exciting blog campaign (you can read all about it here). I was excited to tell people about the project itself (as it really is exciting), and despite everyone being so busy, I am really glad that we managed to speak to several bloggers who sounded really excited about what it entailed. I will probably also be writing a summary of LFW, and who I approached for the Big Blog Exchange on the HI blog, which can be accessed here.
My boyfriend and I (who I was bringing along to be my ‘official’ photographer for the day – how very civilised) arrived at Freemason’s Hall for Fashion Scout at 10am, after a rather lengthy journey into London. We had a quick peek at the exhibition upstairs, and had a lovely chat with one of the amazing designers there, who bases his collection of handbags on female body parts (it sounds strange, but he makes it work) and menswear (so several of the bags feature a tuxedo design), before then heading down to the main hall to get our wristbands for Rohmir.
At 11.40, the first show kicked off – with some beautiful A/W designs strutting down the runway from Rohmir. My boyfriend did a fantastic job snapping all the outfits (as you can see from the photos), but I’m not too sure if he captured my favourite piece of the collection, a beautiful metallic ‘mermaid-scales’ like dress (if that makes any sense) that looked absolutely fabulous with the lighting. I often consider fashion week to be an ‘over exaggerated’ representation of what we will be wearing next season, however this piece by Rohmir looked ready to slip on and wear out.
After the show finished, we made our way over to Somerset House to register for our blogger/photographer passes. Although this took a little while (if you’re planning to register for a blogger’s pass, you need over 5,000 unique hits a month – and a print out of these stats – and you can have yourself a pass printed on the day, so come on down!), once we had our passes – which was a very exciting moment for me, we had a stroll round the courtyard area and sat down for some lunch, whilst people watching (literally – the best thing to do at LFW!).
Some of the famous faces I spotted including Molly King from The Saturdays, who was looking rather orange I must say, Rosie, Millie and Proudlock from Made In Chelsea and Camilla Dallerup from Strictly Come Dancing. They all looked very glamorous as usual, but I did overhear a few complaints by fashionistas, who claimed they were sick of seeing them all over LFW, as they ‘didn’t belong in the front row’. Do you agree?
After a spot of lunch, and speaking to MAC Cosmetics about booking an appointment, to go through their new collection, we had a quick look around the exhibition space (we will have a lengthier look on Tuesday) before heading over to the bloggers/media lounge to speak to some bloggers about the Big Blog Exchange.
I did have tickets for Fyodor Golan and another show, but unfortunately due to timing, we couldn’t make them. I’m pretty gutted about missing Fyodor Golan as the tweets after the show were mad, and everyone seemed to hold the opinion that the collection was absolutely amazing!
At 3.30pm, I started queuing for Jean-Pierre Braganza, and got chatting to the lovely Alexa Meale, who is a personal buyer and stylist. She has recently started working for herself, after several years at Harvey Nichols, so we shared thoughts about working/blogging for yourself, which was really interesting. She is a really interesting and lovely lady (who also runs a blog), so you should definitely check out her website (alexameale.com).
After a rather long queue (the shows tend to run a little late in the evening, so even if you have a ticket, be prepared to queue), we finally headed into the show and stood at the very back. Unlike Rohmir, the Jean-Pierre Braganza show was located in the Somerset House Courtyard Show Space (which is where ALL the major shows are held), so it was amazing to witness it in person. Although ‘standing’ doesn’t sound too glamorous, it’s actually better to be at the back, as you can view the model’s full outfit, rather than just the top half!
The Jean-Pierre Braganza collection was as glamorous as I had expected, with lots of float-y chiffon fabrics, gorgeous geometric prints and girly chic cuts. The collection was rather sci-fi esque, but still very feminine and glamorous! The models looked amazing, with their hair sleek and straight, with a little ‘roller’ style quiff at the back. The make-up was kept very simple, with gothic smoky eyes and nude lips – perfect for letting the clothes do all the talking!
Overall, I had a really great day – one I will remember for a long time! I’m not expecting Monday and Tuesday to be quite as jam packed with shows, as I haven’t got as many invites (but maybe they will come through Monday morning – you never know?), so hopefully I can focus more on the exhibitions! I would definitely recommend any bloggers who have wanted to give LFW a try to head on down to Somerset House (even if you haven’t got the days off work/school – why not go down this weekend). If you have 5,000 unique users or more on your blog each month, they will give you a pass on the day, and you are then free to look round the exhibition and visit the media lounge as much as you would like!
But for now (I am writing this having just got home – it’s 8PM), I am looking forward to getting cosy in front of the TV and resting my feet (which hurt like hell), snuggling with my duvet and applying ice to my arm. It’s a long story.
So, did you attend LFW? Or did you watch the live streaming of the show? What did you think? If you are a blogger, are you going to register for LFW this season?
