London Fashion Week: Outfits At The Ready!

If you are reading this blog, the likelihood is that you have some interest in and awareness of fashion. Therefore I feel I can adopt a somewhat ‘knowing’ tone with you. You will be aware that London Fashion Week kicks off today with all the hype, hysteria and general hoopla that entails. I have to confess that after 10 years in business and a degree in Fashwani from the University of life it no longer fills me with the same levels of excitement as it did in the days when I would throw myself over a fence, under a train and snog a bouncer just to stand on tippee-toe at the back of the hottest, newest, I-buried-my-collection-in elephant-shit-and-am-now-selling –it-exclusively–to-one-shop-who-wont-pay designer of the moment.

That said it does still excite me in other ways. I love the outfits, the energy and the passion LFW whips up. I love the way that LFW gives the perfect excuse to unleash the fashion beast within. Clearly this enthusiastic approach generates a few odd looks in my direction on the school run-even if I do take the precaution of removing my white plastic star glasses (Alexa –I was following your ‘cool rules’) but on the whole I feel it is appreciated. One should always make the effort and if one can’t, then one needs to buy a very big and fabulous coat and cover up whatever hasn’t been appropriately styled. To within an inch of one’s life.

Obviously LFW is a very important time for us. It involves multiple outfit changes daily as we meet with the buyers, taste-makers and fashion mavens who buy our collections. It is incredibly hard work as I need to plan each outfit with meticulous care at least 3 days in advance…And the weather is just so unpredictable at this time of year…. I start off channeling a Belle de Jour meets Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights not the Ginger cat) vibe in a Harris Tweed Lou Trench and end up somewhere near Xanadu in a neon pink Alicia bubble dress due to a change in atmospheric conditions. All valid looks but incredibly difficult to pull off in terms of accessories all in the same day. I deserve an OBE.

Actually The Oracle and I will be off to New York bang in the middle of LFW. Sara’s Sister will fly the flag in the UK for LFW whilst The Oracle and I sashay around NYC in our fabulous outfits and hair by Fredrik Fekkai. It will be an exhausting round of meetings, dinners, drinks, parties and shopping. I don’t know how we will cope.

To be fair, it is fortunate that I only have to keep up this façade for a very limited time as it is frankly exhausting, all-consuming and irritating for anyone being forced to watch. But for the 4 weeks that are the Fashion Week season (only in Fashwani could people take so long and be so late that a week becomes 4) it is great fun and I shall fully partake-outfits at the ready.