London Fashion Weekend 3

 Yes, its that time of year again and as usual, Susie and I attended London Fashion Weekend at Somerset house. Wearing my new Topshop Unique deco print shirt, with which I christened my new student discount, and embarrassingly enough, my chelsea boots, we arrived (with outstanding grace on the cobble stones) at 11:30 and promply went to pick up our Show Bags. As always, the show bag is an exciting part of the day and I was thrilled to see (to name a few) a Karl Lagerfeld designed coke bottle and Gu chocolate flapjacks, plus some rather funky looking eyelashes. The bag this season was designed by David Koma and I was rather impressed by the mint green colour- a definite branch out!

The show, once again styled by Miss Molly was one of the best I think London Fashion Weekend has seen over the past 4 years I've been going and I am more excited than ever about Autumn/ Winter!  managed to impress myself by getting from the third row (we just didnt get there in time!) to the first, which is now some Vodaphone VIP thing that not many people use, leaving a basically vacant front row, so when the lights started dimming I wasted no time getting down there. The new host, stylist Grace Woodward, who I had seen in the couple of 'Britain and Irelands Next Top Model' episodes  I watched this year, gave the standard introduction to the collections and managed to slip a couple of very unfunny jokes in there (no one laughed...) and kicked off the show with Jaeger AW11. They have done a few shows at London Fashion Weekend in the past and I still think they are great- amazingly wearable and very warm looking.The coats and knits genuinely made me wish it was colder! Accompanied by a £25 voucher in the show bags, I may be able to afford a pair of socks now! Next was a trend collection, aptly named "The Great British Autumn". A few things to sum this up are: Layers, layers, layers, muted palettes, mixed prints, chunky boots, plaid skirts, knits, scarfs and coats. As Grace Woodward said, we are basically channeling Helena Bonham Carter style here. Think eccentric, eclectic British lady. After this was the A/W collection of Bryce Aime. This was very much made up of structured and modern graphic prints. He claims the collection was inspired by the stereotypical militaristic features of an army barracks. I thought the combination of structure, tailoring and edgy androgynous silhouettes in his collection was clever and I really liked it, although I'm not sure I'd wear many of the looks! This was followed by another trend show, 'Le Rive Gauche'. This collection was quite similar to my style and reminded me of Audrey Hepburn and Alexa Chung. There was an abundance of texture- leather, silk, suede, fur, satin... Very French Chic and old movie style. It was, undoubtedly my favourite of the collections we saw and many of the looks included the clothes of Lucy in Disguise- Lily Allen and her sister's vintage shop venture. They had a stall which Susie and I payed a visit and after lusting after the vintage Ossie Clark gowns, made us wish we had an unlimited budget. The final collection was Osman. I would describe it as very luxurious, quite eclectic and dreamlike. Inspired by the artist, Catherine Yass's recent series of lightboxes, 'Decommissioned',  the looks had a very precise and modern feel. In particular, there was a very nice dress with a light pink leather bodice and a bright pink skirt. I want!

After fighting our way out of the tent, we looked round all the stalls from vintage to designer, all lovely and all out of price range. We revisited a couple of favourites then left in search of a PRET. I guess thats the end of London Fashion Weekend for 2011 but February is not so terribly far away is it? I say the same everytime but, highlight of the year for me!

 Saw some brilliant Street Style there and, if this inspires more people to go, the introduction of the Men's section meant many very well dressed guys!
Also you've probably noticed but I've rediscovered the formatting wonders of blogger of sorry about the random colours!
I will take this time to also make a vow not to blog about the chelsea boots for the rest of September.
LB xx