electric_dress: [London] Fashion Week Diary Day 3

Somerset House in the sunshine

After the shennanigans of Friday night, I spent most of Saturday battling tiredness, so put no pressure on myself to get up early on Sunday, despite the carpe diem, oh-my-god-its-fashion-week temptation to get out as early as possible and stay late as one can. I took my time and aimed for a Somerset House arrival at 1PM. My fashion week buddy Sara had uni work to do and was meeting with KTZ about dressing the show the next day, so we agreed to rendez vous at Pam Hogg later that night.

I was feeling pretty inspired beautywise and used an Urban Decay electric blue eyeshadow on top of nude lipstick to create some wow factor lip action. I washed my eyebrows out with a whole load of silver and matched my graphic eyeliner to my Daria Werbowy in Paris Vogue samurai hairstyle. Getting out at Holborn, I was stopped by the charming and well spoken photographer Paul who had also asked for a beauty shot in the Somerset House courtyard on Friday. Funnily enough, he hardly recognised me, and nor did he seem to recall my face on Monday when he asked for a shot of my black lips and fuscia cheeks. A street style photographer working for various agencies, I remember him from previous seasons singly shooting one item, and this time make up was it. He is a lovely guy and I was glad we met. Here are some pictures my friend James took later in the day...

// What I wore / Hood: Chouchou and Oui! Designs / Top: Penneys / Leather harness: Topshop / Watch: New Look / Leggings: American Apparel / Boots: Aldo //

Once at the fash pack home, I used the press lounge to catch up on some work and there met the very nice Charlotte, a fashion writer and editor. If you can get a seat and PC, the free Lavazza coffee , cheeseboards and cakes at the press lounge are almost as good as free printing and Toni and Guy and MAC bars. She was watching the Topshop show and let me peek over her shoulder: the digital schedule really is a good initiative, while the Topshop collection looked far more fashion forward and commericial than last season.

Charlotte was heading to House of Evolution and I gave it a go, up at the Fashion Scout. She had a friend, biomedical scientist Emily with her, and while Charlotte dived in like a pro to the front of the queue, we squeezed in further back, still managing to pick up champers on the way in. Emily was very sweet, kept saying how she knew little about fashion, but actually had a good sense of taste herself. People often take fashion to be a secret code that other people seem to *get* but it really relies on little more than that, and perhaps a higher than average tolerance for bullshit.

Typically Charlotte sat FRow but we had a pretty good view from the third, including of Corrie star Michelle Collins and X Factor ex, Kitty Brucknell. The show included three collections, starting with Delada and closed by Nadine Merabi. The Zayneb Tosum one in the middle was by far my favourite, comprising of Japanese warrior inspired tailoring with funky, punky detailing and lashings of attitude. Read my full show report here. After, Charlotte had another show to run to and Emily was done for the day, so I met a slightly worse-for-wear James, Danielle and their friend Lorraine from Cork outside and took them up to the Raffaele Ascione presentation.

Featuring a short film then models entering and going on a stagelike setup, it seemed slightly better organised than Shao Yen, and the Red Bull on offer was kind of God sent at that point. All sugar free, of course. We did, however, spot that the hair was by Tony and Guy according to the show notes: a new company, perhaps? The clothes were gorgeous, combining eveningwear and sporty elements in a Studio 54, grown up glamour feel. We then headed to the Prince of Wales pub, a classic fash pack hang out, to await Pam Hogg and the next intallement of London Fashion Week, Autumn Winter 2012. Little did we know what we were letting ourselves in for.....................