electric_dress: [London] Fashion Week Diary Day 1

I arrived in London on Thursday night more or less prepared for the week. During the day in Dublin, I had picked up business cards and met my friend Mark Andrew Kelly, stylist and assistant at Brown Thomas for coffee. We found some gorgeous Rick Owens-esque lace-up platform boots at Aldo which perfectly completed some of the looks I'd been planning to werk over the week. Of course, booking an evening flight gives you all of the feeling of having tons of time but inevitably, I ran late in the end, but just made the Aer Lingus flight! It was packed to the hilt with business types, but the crew were really nice and it's so worth paying the extra, especially as they helped fend off an attack of claustrophobia.

Once I touched down in London, I headed to Bethnal Green where I was staying with my good friend and Fashion Week find extraordinaire, Sara. We actually met last year in the queue to register and got on like a house on fire. Blogger on Less is Bore and design student at the College of Fashion, she is super cool, with a totally original and fun sense of dress, and intelligent and generous to go with it.

Photo: Thunder and Threads

What I wore // Scarf: Debenhams / Coat: Noa Noa / Biker Jacket (just seen): H&M / Car print top: Penneys / BAg: H&M / Skirt: H&M / Wet Look Leggings: Zara / Boots: Aldo //

In the morning I headed to Somerset House and registered as a blogger, managing to blag an official bag that everyone except bloggers usually get, which includes the "Little Black Book" of all you need to know for Fashion Week as well as the "Insider's Guide" to London. Sara was interning for Corrie Nielsen this season and had come straight from Paris where she was on a school trip to Somerset House that morning. Being the organised type, she had my postal invites as well as a ticket to the Corrie show, which I headed to straightaway. For all the thrill of the blag, it sure is nice to be official.

In the tent, I met Jordanna and Mel, two photographer-slash-bloggers whom I'd met last year through Sara. They boosted off into the crowd to get good angles for shots, while I sat about third row, just behind where Louise Redknapp was being papped. The collection was stunning, and I loved to see Scottish influence on the runway; read my review here. Other slebs in attendance were models Noelle Reno and Tallulah Adeyemi, who I spotted at quite a few shows through the week.

Next, I headed up to Vauxhall Fashion Scout, a great off-schedule showcase with super-friendly staff in the stunning Freemason's Hall. Queuing with Harajuku inspired Florrie of Intrinsically Florrie and her fashion journalism student friend Claudia, we went in for the minimalist Krystof Strozyna show; read my review here. Next, it was back to Somerset House, to take street style shots and where I got snapped myself - above is an image by the lovely Dublin blogger Leanne of Thunder and Threads. Motel rocks took my picture, as did My Daily and I was interviewed by the vivacious, high-larious Lewis Taylor of 1883 Magazine. Helpful, since I didn't get anyone to take a picture of my look for myself!

After that, I went to Zoe Jordan (read my review here) in the place of Sara who was still with the Corrie team in post-show relaxation mode. The queue was pretty long when I arrived, but luckily I spotted Florrie and she let me join her. The collection was full of fabulous fabrics, although the only goodie bag action we got was some coconut water that was pretty foul! I met two more bloggers, Dina of She Loves Mix Tapes and Rosalind of Clothes, Cameras and Coffee, winner of the 2011 Vogue Writing Competition.

Meeting Sara at Walkabout with the Corrie guys, I was able to tell Corrie in person how much I loved the show. Of course, she looked completely exhausted so I refrained from asking for a picture; Sara and I headed to Freemason's Hall, getting street styled by a lovely Geordie lad whose card I am gutted to have lost and meeting her friend Jacob, stylist and all round cool East London kid on the way.

At Fashion Scout, we met the Pandora's Thoughts team and headed to Basso and Brooke. The queue was enormous and although we joined with Jordanna's friend Jeffrey about half-way up, they hit capacity when we were about five people from the front. Jordanna and Mel wanted to get to Jena Theo back at Somerset House, so we all grabbed a cab, where Jordanna snapped us simultaneously gossiping, laughing and tweeting about the long wait outside Basso and Brooke!

While the Pandora's Thoughts duo wanted to see Jena Theo, I had an invite to see my Glaswegian friends Jenn and Lyndsey of Obscure Couture and their work at the A La Mode showcase. Their punk couture aesthetic has always been a firm favourite of mine, but the show itself was a real drag. The catwalk could hardly be seen and the models walked terribly slowly, meaning you were waiting for a long time to catch a glimpse of anything! However, I really loved seeing their stuff on a London catwalk and definitely think they should do their own show next time. Read my review of their collection here.

After, Sara was pretty knackered at this point, so she headed off home. She was able to take a few of my things and I headed out to Camden to meet my friend and party animal Mui, with whom I'd arranged to stay that night. We had a very fashion week dinner of salad, white wine followed by black coffee at Pizza Express and then went to join the Obscure girls at Jalouse where model and blogger Laurene Andrew had booked a table. The night was kicking off pretty good, and I even finally met Glasgow jewellery mastermind Bonnie Bling! We danced on seats and were generally having a hella good time.

However, Mui was suddenly found passed out and I had to get my game face on - the bouncers and management couldn't have been nicer, taking us into a back office where they made sure we had money for a cab, got out her driving license with her address and house keys. I wasn't in the best state to look after her and getting pretty hysterical at being left alone in London with such a responsibility; they got us to a cab, but halfway home the taxi driver threw us out, leaving Mui on the ground!

I thank God and the stars and all the powers that be of how lucky we were; I was not able to wake Mui for love nor money and it was only because a passing driver took pity on us and took us home that we made it at all. The way the staff at Jalouse were so nice and the level to which she was unconscious makes us think she was spiked - a scary way to start the week, but its certainly times like this that you learnt to watch out in future...