Wednesday 23 February 2011

London Fashion Week - February 2011





This season's LFW has been particularly exciting for me due to the fact that it has brought about some new experiences: for the first time I visited some of the exclusive and High End Designer Exhibitions and Fashion Shows at Somerset House and Vauxhall Fashion Scout!

This opportunity arose because my mentor and the Managing Director (Ola Shobowale) of the Fashion Company that I sporadically work with (Untold Design CIC) kindly invited me to accompany him and another Industry friend on Monday and he "hooked me up" with one of the press passes that our PR person got for the team! Super cool, huh?

Somerset House can arguably be described as the Fashionista's "Mecca" so I was completely elated to be able to have uninhibited access to all areas.

I was warned though, that LFW was strictly for "serious fashionistas", this meant having no qualms about rushing around for the entire day from one show to the next laden with multiple goody bags, minimal bathroom trips and very little food as time was simply not afforded to us for such luxuries - I was informed! (A suggestion I made to stop off to quickly grab some soup from Pret a Manger was so sternly frowned upon, I quickly learned  never to make such a suggestion again!)

The day began in the afternoon at Somerset House with viewings of some High End Designer Exhibitions:


Ann Louise Landelius
Camilla Skovgaard

Coat envy: Anne Valerie Hash






Shoes glorious shoes!
















I absolutely fell in love this bag!! Designer: J.JS Lee.
I swiftly came to the conclusion that I need this bag in my life!
Holly Fulton: This top weighed about as much as I do!! Beautiful, however.





After this, we moved on, just a few minutes walk down the road to the Strand Palace Hotel for the Fashion Maverick event which is a compilation of mini Fashion Shows from emerging designers.

Here's one of my favourites from this event - Knitwear and Jewellery Designer Susana Bettencourt:










Then it was time to move onto my personal highlight of the day - my first High End Designer Fashion Show - Todd Lynn.
The most unfortunate (and typical!!)thing happened right at the opening of the show - my camera battery died! I did make attempts to take pictures on my iPhone, but this proved to be futile as they were not of very good quality. But to describe the most promininent features of his designs, they are: strong, structured, sharp, peaked/pointed shoulders, very high collars and a masculine "feel" to both the female and male collections. Leather and fur dominated the catwalk in mainly red, black and slate grey colours.

The next stop was Vauxhall Fashion Scout to view very ample offerings of Designers Bumni Koko and Samantha Cole.

Bunmi Koko's Show- Kaleidescopia was fun, fast-paced and punchy with bright lights and bursting with colour and the models were adequately fierce!
There was an abundance of striking hues and sharp lines.
Bunmi Koko is definitely one to watch - a talented designer indeed:









The Designer herself: Bunmi Koko
Proud: She literally skipped down the catwalk to cheering crowds, elated at her acheivement, and so she should be!




[Images courtesy of Photographer, Rob Sheppard - http://www.catwalk-capture.com]