London Fashion Week N Peal Party

Last night N. Peal celebrated another fabulous season with a big party in the Burlington Arcade. They took over the Arcade with a wonderland theme and invited the great and good of the world of cashmere. It was rather gratifying to see that pretty much everyone was decked out in N Peal. As Creative Director, I thoroughly abused my position and wore a piece I have been coveting from the new AW12 collection...available in charcoal soon!

London Fashion Weekend - the review

Hi Everyone!  This is Danielle. I’m Head of Production and Operations here at Sara Berman.  You saw on Friday we were getting ready for Vodafone London Fashion Weekend so I thought I’d take my turn with this whole blog-writing malarkey and let you know how it all went.  

Fashion Weekend is one of our favourite times of the year and we all eagerly look forward to packing up and heading down for a few days down at Somerset House, seeing all of our loyal customers and picking up a bargain or two of our own. We are now mixing our SS11 clothes with some fabulous Les Neriedes jewellery and gorgeous boots from The Jacksons.

I think this was a record year for familiar faces and having people turning up on the stand wearing SB pieces they’d bought previously. Everyone rocks the SB look in their own way and makes us all go a little warm and fuzzy seeing the gorgeousness you all bring to the brand.

Each year, there are one or two customers who especially stand out for me though.  Last year, a young girl was bought two dresses by her mother and the look of appreciation and excitement has stuck with me ever since.  This year’s moment that made all of the work and late nights worth it was the girl who had just started her first ‘real, grown up job’ and wanted to purchase something she would always remember with the first pay cheque she’d just received.  She left the show with the amazing Woody Ringmaster with the Dan Baldwin print lining and am sure she will have it for years to come.

For those of you who weren’t able to make it to the show, have no fear though. We at SB HQ are working tirelessly through the week to get ready for even more sample sale fun. We will be having our own sale here at HQ in Camden next week.  It would be great to see you all there...Wednesday, the 10^th 10am – 5pm, Thursday, the 11^th 10am – 7pm and Friday, the 12^th 10am – 5pm.  Looking forward to seeing you all there!!

The mysterious incident of the navy tights in the designer's drawer

In the ever changing vortex of taste that is planet fashion there are few truly heinous fashion crimes. Most bad taste can be excused as ‘on trend’ however as with anything in life there are ten comandments which-for the greater good of society and regardless of creative need- should be obeyed. ‘Thou shalt not wear navy tights’ is definitely one of them. Especially if you thought they were black.

Fashion week is an incredibly busy time for us. We are flying madly from appointment to appointment, from launch to dinner to party and somewhere in all that are school runs, parent meetings and tears at bedtime. There is not the necessary time to luxuriate over the choice of ground breaking outfit. The creative dresser within must be reigned in if I am to get anywhere on time and organized the night before. In the dark. Because Ginger #1 is asleep in my bed. And therein lays the problem…. The rogue navy tights luxuriating at the bottom of my drawer undisturbed since last winter have reared their ugly head. Or feet. Whatever.

To be honest it was Amiee that they claimed as their first victim. She rummaged in my drawer shortly before we left for the Value of Fashion launch and she was rocking a beige and black neutrals looks. Except it was beige, black and navy which isn’t a look and in fact an offence and to add insult to injury it only came to light (excuse the pun) under the flash of the photographers camera as her outfit was recorded for Fashion Week posterity. Lets hope they think it’s a new trend.

I was the second victim. Thinking (clearly mistakenly) that the offending item had been taken into fashion custody and were languishing safely in a British Heart Foundation store somewhere I went into the drawer with foolish carelessness. My devil may care attitude was rewarded in the cold light of the taxi cab on route to a charity dinner for HET last night when my vintage Sara Berman lace cocktail dress was ambushed by the surprise appearance of the navy tights. I don’t understand how it happened but I had no choice but to shoulder on, the tights under surveillance. I had a fascinating evening and was enjoying myself greatly until I spotted a fellow fashion body across the room. We did the fashion quick step over to each other and performed the necessary eye sweep and computation. ‘You look fabulous darling! So clever to lift all that lace with navy.’ ‘Oh yes-very next season don’t you think?’

Perhaps I will let the tights out on bail.

Party Party

Last night kicked off the first of the London Fashion Party Season in spectacular style with Elle magazine’s 25th anniversary party. I had a particularly busy day at the studio implementing last minute changes to our Spring Summer collection brought on by inspiration borne of insecurity which resulted in a rethink of an entire story 3 days before we start our London sales. This meant I rushed home to the kids (feeling slightly high as one does after trashing 6 months work and stating afresh with 3 days to go) and allowed myself to get smeared in Bolognese kisses before dashing upstairs to adorn myself in my new Dan Baldwin Candice Dress and Alba Clutch which I have been itching to wear since we designed it way back in Feb.

I also convinced Handsome to come along with me which should be noted as a major feat of marital point scoring. Although I am not sure if I get the points for negotiating attendance or if he gets the points for coming. The great irony is that he is the party animal whereas I am usually the one that needs to be dragged kicking and screaming into any gathering of more than 5 close friends (I am sure there is a complicated phobia word for that but let’s just put it down to early attachment from my mother’s breast and leave it at that).

Anyway, I digress because for once this was an invite I was thrilled to accept for a number of reasons: 1- I do rather love Elle and was quietly rather gratified to be invited. 2 - It was held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery where there is currently an exhibition of works by Alice Neel that I have been meaning to see since it opened in July and 3 - There was also a talk with Dame Viv of Westwood who I love and consider a true great (someone who worked for her once told me that they thought Sara Berman was the next VW and I have been hugging that misguided but utterly wonderful compliment close to my heart ever since). So there we found ourselves, Handsome and I jostling for champagne with the great and the good of British fashion. Blast and a half.

Well the exhibition was truly excellent and VW was truly hilarious. The people were fabulous and I bumped into a whole load of the usual suspects getting into their stride for the season. The outfits were fabulous and I spotted no less than 3 Sara Berman bags being toted by the mavens of fashion (always a good sign). I was pleased to have gone for bold with my Dan dress. As my mother always says - Better to be looked over than overlooked. Indeed.

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.