Bleugh and other stories of illness

So, I'm on day 10 of the flu that struck the day before Fashion Week and I can't seem to shake it. Having pretty much managed to ignore it all through the course of LFW, it was Wednesday when I was at last sitting back down in the office that it really crept up and smacked me over the head.

Of course, the timing was fantastic as Friday was my boyfriend's sister's long anticipated wedding and as we headed down on the Thursday, I could feel it taking hold but it wasn't until I woke up yesterday with no voice that I realised quite how bad it was.

My voice keeps on returning and then disappearing again, along with my ability to focus on anything. Thankfully, we're now home after the hairiest drive home through flu-addled eyes and I've crawled into bed in the boyfriend's Incubus hoodie, some pyjama pants and a big ole beanie in order to rest, rest and rest some more in the hopes that I might actually be okay for Monday. If not, it'll be a trip to the doctor's for me to score some harder drugs than just the Nurofen and cough syrup that I've survived on until now.

I know that I promised to photo videos this weekend but it may have to wait until the glow from my laptop screen doesn't make my eyes feel like they're on fire. I promise to return as soon as I'm better.

LFW AW09: Tuesday is currently delayed.

Guys, I'm sorry. I'm so tired, I tried to write a really long blog about today but my connection is running really slowly tonight and uploading photos is taking forever. Well, long enough to severely piss me off. Rather than sit up til 1am again blogging as I have on previous night, I am going to be kind to myself, go to bed and post it tomorrow in full rather than tonight without the accompanying imagery. That would be lazy. There's a possibility that I might return in 10 minutes when the guilt kicks in, but I may also be passed out on my pillow by then.

We'll have to wait and see.

LFW AW09: Tuesday

Fashion flu struck me down with full force when I woke up this morning. I just about managed to get into the office but spent most of the day battling to focus on my computer screen. As such, I haven't edited yesterday's post so as you read it, please pretend it's still Tuesday. I hope that makes sense. There's no post about today as I only had a tickets for Carolyn Massey and the flu made it seem so far that I didn't go.

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Depending on how you look at it, today is the last day of London Fashion Week AW09. There's still the menswear showcases tomorrow but as of today, Womenswear is officially done. I am partly sighing with relief but also a little sad. After weeks of organising, stress and then the actual traipsing and exhaustion of the event itself, it seems to disappear in the blink of an eye with nothing but a few blisters and the odd goodie bag to show for it. Now, it's roll on, September.

But let's not get too melancholy, there's still today to talk about. I had to finish off doing the tents, so there's was little time for shows but I still managed to cover a few. The day started at Osman Yousefada at the Science Museum. I really liked the collection, in it's regal futuristic lady kind of way. Boiled wools, big jewel embellished necklines and clean, sculptural lines galore. Judge for yourselves:







Afterwards, I stayed at the same venue for Ashley Isham, whose front row was certainly interesting: Tess Daly, someone from GMTV, Jade Parfitt, Erin O'Connor and Michelle Collins, who has certainly pulled it together since the last Ashley Isham show:



I have to say that from the collection, the first three quarters of his collection didn't really rock my socks but the final quarter with his formal dresses had some really great pieces. Compare and constrast:






and the final portion:






Share your thoughts in the comments section. Next, we headed over to Vauxhall Fashion Scout for Avsh Alum Gur. The collection featured ball dresses with huge exaggerated netted skirts with quirky prints to cat suits embellished with 'credit crunch' in diamante, as well as more wearable pieces such as the fluted strapless dress and purple cardigan coat.







From here, we headed back to the tents to finish off doing the rounds at the exhibition and to grab a free Topshop lunch box, which was awesome. Mine contained a smoked salmon and picked cucumber sandwich, mini caeser salad, banana, two amazing choc-chip cookies and a passion fruite and pineapple juice. Yum.

After we finished, we headed up to Bora Aksu and like a lot of others, ended up missing it because the venue was overstuffed, which was a real shame. So, we killed some time and then headed to Emma Bell, over at Vauxhall Fashion Scout. Approaching the venue, I gulped at the site of the long line of Hoxton Trendies snaking down the pavement. If there's one thing that this Fashion Week has taught me is that if you look like you know where you're going, you'll get there. Posse in tow, I marched to the front of the queue where a man dressed head to toe in sequins was having a hissy fit at not being included on the guest list as his friend's plus one and therefore not being let in.

Summoning all of my courage, I side-stepped sequin man and mustered an 'Excuse me, are you letting in press?'. The doorman immediately snapped to attention.
'Of course, of course. How many of you?'
I pointed at the crowd on the pavement and before I knew it, we were in and skipping out on the fancy-dress explosion of a crowd grumbling outside. We had to wait for about half an hour in a rammed, hot and angry crowd before the show was ready to run and people could finally enter the room where the show was being staged. Once more, armed with a good ticket and with three people clinging on in a chain, I marched up, waved my ticket in the air and there was someone grabbing my wrist and leading me on.Suddenly, we were front row for the show. Awesome.

The show started with a performance of 'how much is that doggy?' by Scottee, a performance artist, who was dressed in a full on dog costume and lime green glittery heels. A violinist in face paint accompanied him while a montage of silly photos of dogs was projected onto the walls.



Finally some clothes appeared and it was a completely crazy collection but clearly popular with the I'm-so-weirdly-dressed-I-must-be-cool crowd, judging by their whooping. There was no celebrity front row but they did have Sam and Amanda (the annoying twins from Big Brother) and Jodie Harsh walking the catwalk. Finally, I'm shut up and post some photos:







I was meant to head out to both the FAD awards and then the Osman afterparty but fashion flu was setting in and for a moment, I hesitated in the tube station. East to Green Park and the party or West to home and lying down? The pull to my bed was far greater than that of free booze and so off I trotted, another Fashion Week over.

Coming soon: video of all of the final walks.

LFW AW09: Monday

Oof, another exhausting day, coupled with the fact that my feet have spent all day being blistery and painful, which did not make me a happy bunny. Let's get straight to it, shall we? I started the day at Ossie Clark, which looked suspiciously empty - I suspect a lot of fashionistas were nursing their hangovers from the various parties that were on last night. I really loved the collection, very 70s and beautiful, jewel colours and flowing fabrics with lovely oversize floral prints. The models, including Jourdan Dunn all had beautifully blown out flowing hair that worked so well with the clothes. Sigh. See for yourselves:







From there, we headed to the V&A for the Stephen Jones exhibition which is AMAZING. So beautifully and thoughtfully laid out with his studio replicated in the middle, every iconic hat is in there. Go and see it, that's an order. I couldn't take photos as they were filming interviews with the man himself so that's added incentive, YOU MUST GO.

From Stephen Jones, I was meant to head back to the office until my boss said I should go to Erdem with him and never one to pass up a hot ticket, I tagged along and was successfully smuggled in and seated despite the constantly checking of tickets (which I didn't have). Gorgeous, gorgeous show with a base pallette of navy, with huge florals on top and ruffled collars. A lot of dresses reminded me of last year's Balenciaga SS with nipped in, tailored top halves and then blown out bottoms. Spotted in Erdem's front row were Samantha Cameron, Lydia Hearst and Jo Wood. Upon leaving, I even managed to snag a goodie bag that someone left behind. Not bad for someone who didn't have a ticket! On with the photos, which are rubbish I know. It was very bright and my camera doesn't cope well with high levels of exposure:





I had to go back to the office and do some proper work after Erdem and hit the tents to visit the Exhibition but my hard work was rewarded with one of the most talked about shows of the day, William Tempest. It was quite a late show but definitely one worth going to. The clothes were beautiful and totally lived up to the hype. Very angular, with beautiful oversized pleating and interesting almost painterly fabrics and rich, dark silks. Lovelovelove. Emma Watson, Jade Parfitt and a heavily made up Sophie Anderton made up the front row, along with Zezzi Ifore. Roisin Murphy was meant to come but to my knowledge was a no-show. Boo.









I would post a photo of what I wore today but it wasn't that exciting, mostly things from other days as I was too exhausted to even think about what was going on so I'll just list it. Grey boyfriend blazer - River Island, pale pink silk scarf - Vintage, grey bow back jumper - Prada, grey stripey tee - Topshop, black jeans - Topshop and olive green Converse low tops. All topped off with my safety pin clutch which seems to be going down very well. And now, I'm going to go to bed at a decent hour. I can't begin to tell you how excited I am at this prospect.

LFW AW09: Sunday part deux

It's been over twelve hours since today's adventure began and I've just arrived home at close to 10 o'clock. To say I'm tired is an understatement. All of my friends think it's terribly glam and yes, sometimes it is but there is also a lot of standing around in the cold, waiting for the clipboard bitches to declare you worthy of entering the venue.

Anyhoo, now that I've aired most of my bitterness, let's get to the shows, shall we? I promised you photos earlier from Betty Jackson this morning, I believe. First up, the front row:




And now, some clothes:







My personal favourite item was the handbag-backpack bag, which was a fun piece but I'm not sure how it would translate to every day life. Either you'd get pickpocketed constantly or end up tripping over on the backpack straps. But fun nonetheless.

After Betty Jackson, I had a little break and whizzed over to High Road House in Chiswick for brunch with my previously mentioned and much neglected friends before heading back for a blowdry at Toni & Guy's onsite press salon. It's a little oasis of calm where you can lie back and enjoy a little bit of follicle pampering. I also love it as it means that I don't have to wash my hair tonight and because I'm slightly unhealthily addicted to their Resurrection Style Dust. Seriously, I'm not being paid to say this, ever since I discovered it a few weeks ago, I love it.

From the salon, I had to run to Eley Kishimoto. From the second I saw the invite for this, I was curious. Styled like a retro boarding pass with an indian print pattern, it was very true to the show which featured lots of 1960s style air stewardess references from the cute skirt suits to the felt hats worn with lots of different outfits, as well as their signature graphic prints. Pre-show, they also had sound effects featuring tannoy calls and other airport related noises which were fun but made it difficult to make the usual fill-in calls as I waited. Anyway, enough gabbling, let's have some photos:







After the show, I made a mad dash to the press lounge to check my emails for all of thirty seconds and literally barely made one of the last buses heading to Aquascutum, where a guard of dishy men in suits and black overcoats lined the way. The wait was pretty long and the cold was starting to creep in, which made people slightly irritable but all was forgiven once we got inside and the show started. While I was waiting outside, I spotted Alexa Chung and Anna Piaggi heading in and must say that Alexa has the skinniest colt-like legs I've ever seen.







On our way out of the show, I couldn't help but be tempted by a photo of the dishy men and after very little cajoling, my colleagues leapt between them for a photo op:



We had a little time before Jaeger so went to grab some dinner at the cheap chinese round by South Ken station and then headed back to the BFC tent once more for our final show of the day. We got there in the nick of time and grabbed our seats. Front row for the show featured Alexa Chung (again), Erin O'Connor and Tamsin Egerton, I couldn't see any more as we arrived so late. At least this year we weren't as late as last seasn, they slammed the door in my face.







After Jaeger, owing to the fact that we only had tickets for PPQ's party and not the show, we hopped in my car and headed off to the Met Bar's pink drinks party for a quick mingle. It was a truly awesome affair with mini chorizo hot dogs, mini chips and tempura veg in cones, candy floss and lots of other tasty treats. However, the cold, tiredness and the fact that I was driving (and a little bitter from lack of tickets) meant I headed home rather than continue the night at PPQ's pose fest.

And now it's almost midnight and let me tell you how glad I am to be lying down right now, before it starts all over again at Ossie Clark at 9am tomorrow. Before I finish, here's what I wore today: Blazer - River Island, sequin tee - Kate Moss for Topshop, Jeans - Topshop, shoes (replacing leopard print Office ones which ripped open my feet) - Topshop, clutch bag - Bodhi, skull ring - Butler & Wilson.



At last, to bed. Hurrah!