London Fashion Week: Part 1 (of 3)

I never thought that I'd be invited backstage at LFW when I started this blog, I never even knew that beauty bloggers existed outside the beauty blogging bubble but if reports from the last few weeks are anything to go by, we do and we're ruffling the feathers of many a professional.  I'm sure everyone read that vicious article written by a two faced person (nothing slanderous there, the article was vicious and the person who wrote it is two faced) about certain beauty bloggers (who by the way, delivered a rebuttal which was not only far more eloquent than the original "article" but also used actual facts and not some distorted truth which would fit their version of events better).

Anyway, let's move on.

I was invited to LFW and originally I wanted to go on the Saturday but family commitments prevented this from happening so I went on Sunday instead.

I was asked if I wanted to go backstage beforehand but time constraints (had another function in the evening) prevented this.  I watched two catwalk shows and lost my (manicure) viriginity.

Both shows ran late and there was a fair bit of waiting around outside the catwalk "room".  I'd expected that there would be a lot of waiting around and I was kept occupied by the spelling game on my Blackberry.

I really didn't know what to expect from a fashion show as I'd never been before but it was pretty hectic, and that's just "infront of the scenes" so just think what it's like behind the scenes.

Everyone was ushered in at different times and I got a seat on the back row but it was set out so that everyone would be able to get a decent picture of the outfits.

The first thing that got me was the music.  For some reason I didn't think that a catwalk show would have music but both the shows did and now I can see why you wouldn't do it without music.  I assume it was primarily so that you couldn't hear spectators chatting loudly amongst themselves (RUDE!) and secondly so that you couldn't hear anything going on directly backstage.

The second thing that got me was how fast the show was over.  I sat down, got my camera out, snapped pics of a few outfits and the show was done.  Having said that, the outfits were STUNNING.  The room that the catwalk was the perfect size for a runway show as you could see the items of clothes perfectly.

The first show I saw was Doii by Doii Paris.

The outfits were brilliant, you would never be able to tell that this was all the work of one person/designer.  I like both types of collections, ones where you'd never think that one person had put all these items together in a collection and also ones where you can tell they're all from the same collection.

The shoes in the Doii show were out of this world, I really tried to snap a photo of them but I was too busy trying to switch the "auto review" function off on my camera.

The outfits were a mixture of items you could quite easily see in the High Street in the coming months and more outlandish items which I think were meant only for the catwalk.  The standout piece (for me) was the "beady hat" as I call it, I have a photograph of it but it's not the best.  I'll point out on the picture what was going on.

I liked the fact that all the outfits weren't the same, i.e. they weren't all dresses/coats.  There was a mixture of dress types and types of coats etc..   Another thing I really liked was the juxtapositioning (GCSE English, you WERE useful!) of the thumping music and the delicate outfits.

The makeup was lovely, I think the closest I could describe it as would be the English rose look.  Pink cheeks and lips.

The hair was how I wish mine would be once I'd washed it, super voluminous curls with no frizz.

It didn't sink in until I was on the way home that one person had made ALL of those outfits and that the ideas had sprung from that one individual mind.

You can breath a sigh of relief now and stopping tapping your watches and feet, the writing part is over and photo part is just about to start!