Milan: the great model debate

My apologies, I've been lacking in internet but dying to post and now there's a scheduled blogger outage in less than an hour so I'd better be quick.

I've been flipping through the shows from Milan on style.com and I came across the Prada show. Cast your minds back if you will, to 2006. Milan was the first major city to take on the Healthy Model Body Mass Index, enouraging designers to use models who might actually occasionally eat and not be running solely on laxatives and coffee. So imagine my surprise when I came across this model:



I hate to be a fashion killjoy but this girl looks like she's about to drop dead and the glassy-eyed look so often adopted by models as they stalk down the catwalk actually looks real. Those ribs! Those legs! I can understand that clothes hang better on skinny people but corpses? Come on, Miuccia, that's just not right.

But it didn't end there, oh no. Step forth, model from the Jil Sander show:



And let's not forget the girls at Etro, whose shoulders could have your eye out in a bar:



Still, I suppose that with the economy in its current state, it won't be long before many of us are rocking shoulder blades as lethal weapons.

And now, to lift the mood ever so slightly, one very angry looking model from the Prada show:



Girlfriend's about to beat yo ass down.

[all images from the awesome style.com.]

Boo-urns

I'm a little bummed out this evening. On my way home from work, I took a little detour to go and mooch around Topshop. I'd seen an awesome black boy cut fully sequinned blazer in the vintage section on Thursday but as I was lacking in debit card following Walletgate, I couldn't buy it there and then.

All weekend, I tried to put it out of my mind, while some little voice in the back of said mind screamed 'You must have it. MUST!'

Armed with the resolve of if I can't get it out of my mind, I have to have it, I trotted down to the vintage section and you guessed it, it was gone. I'm not really surprised, it was an awesome jacket. And I suppose I kinda ruined that whole story by admitting that I was bummed out at the very beginning. I wouldn't have been bummed out if I had that blazer; I probably would've started with I bought the most amazing blazer today but no.

Ah blazer, perhaps it wasn't meant to be. Which is a real shame because you would've slotted into my wardrobe so perfectly. Sad face.

And now my second disappointment. I bought some Tarmasalata from the local supermarket last night and thought hmm, I'll have a little snack since its 11pm, I'm bummed about the blazer and I didn't eat dinner. Diligently, I chopped my carrots and a side of some good mozzarella, got a big dollop of the dip and went to settle myself in front of Law & Order. But it's salty. Really, really salty. And not good salty, gross salty.

So, now I sit here, bummed out - no awesome jacket and no good tarmasalata.

Tomorrow owes me.

LFW: Take a picture, it'll last longer.

After LFW ended, I slept pretty much all weekend. The week in all of its sparkly glory, had finally caught up with me and I nose dived into bed, where I stayed except for the occasional trip to the fridge and a brief sojourn to buy contact lenses.

On Friday as I was running back to the office to sort out a last minute catastrophe, one of my interns and I got stopped by a photographer from iVillage.co.uk. I didn't think anything would come of it but lo and behold, today we were featured in all of our matching twinny glory. I would like to point out that it was a complete coincidence and in no way planned.



It would've been great if someone had told me that my dress had slipped down to my knees. C'est la vie, there's always next season.

I'll post more photos and outtakes tomorrow.

LFW: Friday

I had tickets for pretty much everything today but due to unforseen circumstances, I only made it to one show today, Ashish but oh, what a show. I found myself happily snapping away the most I have all week.

Maybe its the magpie in me that made me love the heavily sequinned collection but there were so many pieces that I loved. As I've mentioned, lots of sequins, plus army coats and badge coated jumpsuits. Maybe I wouldn't wear the jumpsuit or the tiny denim hot pants with hands on the ass but I would certainly rock one of the playing card dresses. This is a collection that I can see totally see Topshop and a number of other high street retailers ripping off.

Without any further ado, I present today's collection of somewhat blurry photos:





































And the final final walk of the season:



And on that note, the season ends. As much as I loved my first experience of LFW in full on fashion mode, I am really glad that its Friday and I can now sleep for the next two days and fully recover. Fashion week is good but it's also bloody hard work.

LFW: Thursday

Today’s recap will be very brief as I didn’t go to any shows bar the Neurotica salon show in the evening. If, like me, you’re prone to a bit of Dragons’ Den viewing, you may remember Neurotica from one of the earlier episodes of the current series. The designer, Victoria McGrane was picked up by Peter Jones from the panel and subsequently funded to extend her diffusion range that sells in the flagship Topshop on Oxford Circus. The man himself was there to support it and we all got pretty excited.

I preferred this collection to the one seen on Dragons’ Den but that could be largely affected by the lack of ugly tights that were paired with the pieces on the show. Great hair and makeup on the models also helped, with the kitsch croquet/garden setting adding to the fun of it. Unfortunately, it was rather hampered by the lack of seating, which meant that people kept wandering onto the impromptu catwalk and I really, really didn't like the shoes and socks. Bleugh to them, bleugh I say!

I didn't get any footage here as there wasn't really a final walk, so here's a lot of photos instead, featuring Peter Jones:











Tomorrow's going to be another busy day, so on that note, I bid you farewell.

LFW: Wednesday

So, a catch up on yesterday. I'm seriously starting to get fashion week fatigue - my feet hurt, I think I may've trapped a nerve in my shoulder and I'm running on cigarettes and the free bottles of Evian that they give you in the foyer of the BFC tent but for all the pain, it's still quite exhilerating. As this is a catch up, I'm going to be brief so that I can get onto tonight's show and this time, I will actually be brief, unlike yesterday's essay.

I started out at Betty Jackson, which I really liked as a collection. It was one of those collections that I think would translate really easily to actual people's backs, as opposed to just looking good on models.

I've noticed that there's been a lot of orange at the shows this season and while it's a colour that not many people feel confident enough to wear, I think it's going to be a major player come next year. None of my photos came out well and blogger is being difficult, so I'll have to post it tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a photo of the cool lights that they had:



SPOTTED: Jennifer Saunders and a lot of others whose faces I recognised but names I didn't know.

Thankfully, I had a break between shows to nurse my head and recover from my hangover, which was much appreciated. On to Jenny Packham, which had lots of sparkle and pink. I imagine that someone like Katie Price would love it. I wasn't totally enamoured to be honest but that could be because they gave me a standing ticket so I had to queue forever before I got in.

Again, my camera chose to act up but I did manage to get a photo of crazy hat lady. Noone knows her name but apparently she's a hat designer. She wears crazy creations that often measure over 18 inches tall and thankfully, the organisers have finally taken heed and stopped seating people directly behind her. Here's an example of what she wore yesterday:



As I've previously mentioned, my camera has been a bit rubbish this week, so the video of the Jenny Packham final walk is a little overexposed and will have to be posted tomorrow, owing to blogger's bad mood.

LFW Tuesday (again)

So, happy news! I was pretty inconsolable at the loss of my wallet last night but the fashion gods have smiled on me - amazingly, someone found my wallet, looked in it and found my Met Bar card. They then called the Met and let them know, who then contacted me. I get it back tomorrow afternoon. Hurrah!

Now, onwards - or rather, backwards - to yesterday. Since I've got to do two days worth and its pretty late already, its mainly going to be visual this evening. So, without further ado... Ashley Isham had the craziest floor. After making us wait around for 45 minutes, we got ushered in to the show space, where we were confronted with a psychedelic floor:



Unfortunately, my camera has gone a little nuts and overexposes lots of stuff so my footage of the final walk is pretty much unusable but I did quickly snap this when I realised what was going on with my camera:



Spotted in the front row: Michelle Collins (formerly Cindy Beale from Eastenders), Jenni Falconer (GMTV) and Lisa Butcher (What Not to Wear).

Next, it was on to Eley Kishimoto, which was a bit of a mixed bag. I liked the patterned tights, cute block colour dresses, Salamander sequin dress and the biker helmet:







The final walk is a bit overexposed, watch at your peril:



The final show that I went to yesterday was Amanda Wakeley. I wasn't particularly inspired but I'll let you be the judge. Unfortunately, I didn't get a single photo in focus so its just the final walk:



After Amanda Wakeley, we headed straight out to Harrods for the Rock & Republic launch party, where I saw a very pinched looking Tamara Beckwith wearing her sunglasses indoors and wielding a giant Selfridges bag like a guard. God knows why, there was one photographer who was there to cover the event and no paps. Odd.

From Harrods, we headed over to the Met Bar for the Pink Drinks party, hosted by the awesome Jamie who was dressed as Willy Wonka for the Fashion Candy theme, including giant lollipops outside:



From there, we headed over to Mahiki for a quick drink and a bit of a boogie with some of the girls and boys of Tatler in order to get us in the mood for the Swarovski/Giles/Rocks Magazine party in Holborn. After a quick drink and a bit of shape throwing, it was time to head to our (hopefully) final destination of the night.

We hopped into another cab to get to Giles but by the time we got there, we were losing our energy and seeing the long line of Hoxtonites waiting to get in, we decided it was time to call it a night and head home. By all accounts, the Giles party was huge, dark and rammed. I don't think I could've coped with not being able to see 5 feet in front of my face and judging from the size of my hangover this morning, I think it was probably a wise choice.

As I was waiting for my car and lamenting my wallet, I saw Tamsin Eggleton (St Trinians') arriving in a fabulous green dress. I think I may have a new girl crush.

As you can see, there's good cause for my exhaustion and on that note, I think I may have to leave today until tomorrow as its midnight and I'd quite like to go to sleep.

LFW: Tuesday

Apologies for the lack of post tonight but some fucker stole my wallet earlier this evening and my mind is currently focused on that. Reports to come later:

Ashley Isham
Eley Kishimoto
Amanda Wakeley

..and a bunch of parties.

LFW: Monday

I love morning shows at the BFC tent. This morning, it was rise and shine for John Rocha at 9:30 but of course, everything was running fashionably late. The foyer to the tent was rammed full of the fabulously dressed nibbling gingerly at mini smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels and the odd pastry, washed down the lots of boxed juices, all courtesy of Marks & Spencer. Yum.

The show started just before 10am and this time, it was a far more civilised affair. I've been trying to figure out how best to describe the dresses but there's not really one particular word or phrase. So, instead, I can only describe them as prom-like dresses with dropped waists, overlays and bibs - if that makes any sense? I'm not sure. I tried to find images but it seems noone has them up yet. So, I'll have to give simple descriptions of my favourites:

- Cream dress with coral coloured petals and net overlay

- Electric blue ruffled dress

- Black dress with gem encrusted bib and similar one with a gem scarf

Things that I didn't like:

- The hair. Pretty much the same as PPQ, tight-tight buns on top of the head. It's like the fashion version of a Croydon Facelift.

- The slouching male models. I hate to sound like someone's mother but slouching, particularly in a model, is not attractive. They all looked like petulant teenagers, sulking along the catwalk because they've been made to.

And now, more things that I did like:

- The music. It was later identified to me as Talking Heads. Again, I'm going to sound like someone's mother but it's nice not to be subjected to modem-like noises that seem to plague a lot of shows. I don't like being distracted because my ear drum has burst, thank you. Talking Heads is good, Talking Heads let me focus on what I'm seeing, not on whether I need to start wearing ear plugs.

- The fact that there was more breakfast as we left. Cue a mass flocking to the bar to stock up on more fuel between shows.



I wish I had more shows to tell you about but unfortunately, after John Rocha, I had to go back to the office to do some work and therefore missed a lot of the shows. At the end of the day, I rushed to Jaeger, only to have the door slammed in my face but
all clouds have a silver lining - I got see Naomi Campbell stalking along to the backstage area while the show was still happening.

She looked very inch the Supermodel; huge dark glasses, Louboutins and 3 fawning minders leaping around her. Very exciting! Unfortunately, I couldn't get a photo as it all happened so fast - long legs get you places far quicker than the average human limbs. A slightly less starry spotting was the very Ronsealed Victoria Hervey again, looking even more skeletal than normal, wearing sparkly Gina shoes.

LFW: Sunday in Pictures

I promised more pictures, so here they are. Many are blurry and I apologise for that - I'm working with aged technology.

Spijkers en Spijkers






Topshop Unique









Ossie Clark




PPQ





















Also spotted at PPQ:

- Nicola Roberts from Girls Aloud. Her new hair would look good in Editorial - it kind of reminds me of those Miu Miu adverts featuring Lindsay Lohan - but it just looks ridiculously fake in the harsh light of day.

Adele - only fleetingly over peoples heads.