one thing i always wonder about london fashion week is why are
there not more menswear fashion shows. apart from a sprinkling half way
through, there’s nothing for the guys. and it seems my thoughts are also
reflected by the man model david gandy. i caught up with him last night and he
told me he couldn’t understand why menswear didn’t get more of a show in
london. he said: “i don’t get it at all really. you’d think there would be
a real audience for men’s fashion shows – especially these days. but they never
seem to do a lot of men’s fashion in london. i’d love there to be more.”
so would i, dave!

anyway, the big event of the evening was the elle
style awards. they managed to pull a great list together for the event too.
the olsen twins looked like little bush babies, carey mulligan and kristen
stewart were out to celebrate their bafta wins and leona lewis minxed up her
fashion in a black alexander mcqueen gown with a beret. fortunately not
everybody decided to to stick to black or dull colours. nicola roberts – who
wins this week’s award for attending pretty much every show at lfw – wore an
electric pink mini jumpsuit, sophie ellis bextor went for a blue dress and
dannii minogue showed off her mini baby bump in a gorgeous grecian style yellow
floor length. donna air looked curvier than usual and was hanging out with her
old mucker and friend lisa snowdon. they’ve been chums for years…..

my favourite model rosie huntington-whiteley was there too and wore a
gorgeous red gown and looked simply fantastic. in real life she’s like a cat -
super super feline. and she must be like the cat that got the cream now that
she’s dating olivier martinez! they make a sickeningly good looking couple…..

on a more peculiar note, paloma faith was wearing a hat with a
bizarre drape hanging over her, it definitely grabbed my attention.

i fear i’m going to have to sleep for a week when london fashion
week ends. it’s been the most full on few weeks what with the brits, baftas and
elle on top of fashion week. today (tuesday) i’m headed to the issa show and the
warehouse bash too. hurrah!

 think i have the best excuse for this report to be later than expected – it was
my 25th birthday yesterday and i ended up celebrating it with sienna miller and
kate moss. 

my
day started at the crack of dawn, as i rose to apply my make-up ready for matthew williamson’s show. it was at lawrence hall – a vast space
in pimlico, and the hoards of fashion folk outside were all wanting a piece of
matthew. inside, the front row jam packed with the fashionista a-list set -
sienna miller, naturally (she’s his muse), and the noisettes, zandra rhodes and
twiggy. 

the
show was a visual feast – an explosion colour with lots of pleating, fur and
tweed. i couldn’t choose a favourite colour moment, but i fell in love with
matthew’s signature neon pink hue. i also loved a royal blue dress – zandra,
who was sat next to me, told me it was ‘ultra marine blue’, to be
precise. 

i
headed home after the show – i kept my diary clear for the afternoon so i could
hang with mum and nan, who came to london to celebrate my quarter decade. my
nan (who at 88 is somewhat a fashion legend in my circles), begged me to try on my pink wig and fur coat!

as
the night drew on, i headed down to aura for roisin murphy’s party with linda farrow. roisin has just had a
baby girl, but looked divine and fresh. she performed some tracks from her new
album while mat horne, jasmine guinness and rick edwards raided the free
vodka. 

then
it was on to the ivy club (very swish!) where mister williamson was having his
party. i hung with sienna and we gossiped about jude, before she jumped
behind the decks, threw some headphones on, and pretended to dj while the real
dj hanna hanra did all the work! empire state of mind was a highlight, and
paloma faith and i blame coco performed live. i’ve added loads of pics to my fashion week flickr group here!

the
rest of the evening is a bit of a blur. i know i ended up at bungalow 8 doing
shots with pixie lott and hanging at a table with kate moss, alexa chung and
josh hartnett, but from then on it’s all a blank. i’m not just saying this, but
lots of vitamin water is being consumed as i type this to heal my hang over,
and as of today i no longer drink alcohol – ouch!!

the thing about fashion week is the fact that so much goes on in every area of the industry. and each and every year i always find myself trotting over to the orange bafta film awards for the evening on the sunday. awards shows are funny little things – especially when it is something as prestigious as the baftas. my good friend poppy delevingne – an ambassador for chanel – text me in a panic before and said: “deanie, is it long or short for the baftas?” i told her generally it was long – but needless to say she wore a short blue strappy chanel number.

day two dawned, and i woke up with the mother
of all hang overs. luckily for me, i had a fridge full of my trusted vitamin
water to hand and i was hydrated and ready to rock the fashion east show. i
loved the black bondage wear on the dark skinned models, but my colour moment
of the entire day was the multi-coloured pigtail wig – very rainbow meets
ghetto!

my highlight of the day was the ppq show. amy and percy, the two designers,
are good friends of mine, so i rocked up to show my support. ppq is one hot
ticket, and there was a bit of a crush outside, but me and my balmain jacket
strode though past security and the line of about 300 anxious editors. i
probably made a few enemies there, then!

by now it was time to retox (come on….it’s
saturday!) so a glass of champagne in the vip bar balanced me out. jo wood
strode in, looking radiant and youthful in a floor length gown. pixie lott
grabbed me for a picture and we swapped numbers, making plans to meet up before
the end of fashion week. she looked amazing in a blue plastic kokon to zai mini
dress – that girl has the best legs in popworld. we sat front row together and
scoffed on the macaroons i’d smuggled in my hand bag (this is fashion week -
we’re not meant to do food). peaches geldof sat opposite us and mouthed
the words ‘you look hot’ to me, which i kind of took as a compliment. george
lamb and luke from the kooks both looked a bit glum – i guess george had an
early morning call time to get home for and luke is just a rockstar. the colour
palette was a simple black and gold, and the shoes had bows tied like bunny
rabbits. i loved the gold lame pants and the tiny short shorts. i love ppq!

next it was off to the on off party at
bloomsbury ballroom. i was really looking forward to neneh cherry performing
but sadly she had to pull out at the last minute, do to a family problem. the
sugababes came to the rescue, and let me tell you – these girls can sing, dance
and stay sexy. my set highlight was about you now. i tried, and failed, to
mimic the dance routine.

i took myself  home at a very reasonable
10pm and here i am sat now writing this blog in a tracksuit while eating pizza.
oh, the contradictions of life!

until tomorrow… xoxo

there’s nothing more exciting than a fashion show for some people. and topshop was the show that so many people had been excited for throughout fashion week. 

let’s start with the good stuff – the lunchtime show had the best food ever. ham on the bone – sliced and put in a baguette with pickle and mustard, chocolate mousse and freshly cooked quiche. yummy. and there i was thinking all these fashionable types didn’t eat! ha!
i obviously chuffed down a baguette or too but went for a glass of fruity blood orange juice instead of champers. the colour of the red juice gave the factory like white space a real lift! 

the front row was full of familiar faces that i’ve known over the years. peaches geldof arrived from new york fashion week just in time for london’s opening day – along with her chum louise roe (london’s up and coming tv presenter who’s currently making waves with the e! channel in america). peaches sister pixie arrived hand in hand with bosom buddy remi nicole and they sat down front row alongside alexa chung. she’s very trendy wendy! also in the crowd was dancing on ice judge jason gardiner. his teeth have got to be the brightest thing about fashion week so far. they literally light up the room when he walks in. ha ha. 

anyway, the show itself. it was like mad max hits trendy fashionistas. models wore horns and antlers and faux-fur style jackets and coats. leaves were scattered all over the catwalk – that made it such a mess. not my thing at all – but some of the fashion peeps seemed to think it was good. they probably know best. after all, i do celebrity. 

peaches couldn’t help but show off her spiky topshop heels as we walked off to catch a cab. she giggled to me: “if i kick somebody up the bum in these then they’ll know about it.” i’m sure those paparazzi were ducking for cover as she exited the covent garden show. 

you can see peaches shoes and other jucy pics on my fashion week flickr group!

hey y’all, jodie here. i’m your vitaminwater reporter for the week we call fashion – a week of parties, catwalking, dressing up and all-round general colourful fun.

day one of london fashion week started at 10am – far too early for a night owl like me to be out of bed. bora aksu was the first show on the agenda, and yours truly was providing the soundtrack for the models to strut to (i had pre-recorded it in the week so i could still have my front row position). i sailed into the backstage area to greet the designer himself and check out the clothes before they hit the runway (i.e. made a mental shopping list). what a collection – very mantoinette inspired, with gothic elements and bone-like knitted sections that make the torso look like an insect’s. i have my eye on a pair of harem pants and bondage leggings.

next up, straight over to ashley isham‘s show at the on-off venue on bloomsbury square. he dresses lady gaga, and her influence was shining through in this collection. amazing see-through raincoats, red and purple chiffon evening dresses and plenty of metallic – a visual feast. by this time my feet were beginning to hurt, so i popped home for a bath and a tweet before heading to sass and bide’s show. great front row – twiggy and lisa snowdon rocked up together arm in arm, both looking youthful and gorgeous and fresh from shooting the new m&s campaign in cape town, and i was joined by my old school pal natt wellar, model and designer ben grimes, and lola lennox on the front row. the music rocked and the collection was purely black, gold and white. more harem pants here (they’ll never go away), balmain-style tailored jackets beaded armour for the shoulders – delicious! lots of the pieces were embellished with swarovski crystals. and, like the magpie i am, i couldn’t resist.

this was all too much for one night, so i headed home and sadly missed both jade jagger and sass and bide’s parties. however, there will be plenty of partying to speak of tomorrow so i’ll bring you all the juicy gossip from them.

i caught up with london fashion week virgin leona lewis today, who was about to make her debut in the front row. but picking an appropriate show to go to has not been an easy decision for international star leona lewis. the star’s hugely against fur being used in designer’s collections. so on sunday she’s decided to make her first fashion show appearance at jasper conran‘s show. “he’s a designer i respect and i’m incredibly excited to be going to my first ever fashion show,” she told me over a coffee at the kensington garden hotel. 

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last week we wrote ‘fashion in wonderland’, about how the upcoming release of the new alice in wonderland movie (release 5th of march) was inspiring fashion designers.

since then, it’s been brought to my attention that fashion is not the only creative industry to have been inspired by this famous fairytale. reknowned german artist andreas chrzanowski aka case has produced new work based on the alice in wonderland sequel, ‘through a looking glass’. the painting pictured is titled ‘the battle for the rattle’, which may well be of the two brothers, tweedledum and tweedledee, as they suit up for battle, before they are scared by a cow (don’t you just love these stories!)

the exhibition is part of the artist’s current show in london at the signal gallery called ‘never odd or even’. the onsite preview sums up my expectations perfectly: ‘quite the equal to Lewis Carroll (author of alice in wonderland) in his bizarre view of reality
already, the combination of the two creative forces promises to produce
fireworks’. love it. ‘the combination of two creative forces’, our thoughts exactly!

so, has anyone else produced creative work inspired by this timeless classic, do share!