I got the day off on Friday, so finally got to spend some quality time with my friends visiting. We had a great weekend full of touring, markets, great food, and lots of partying. Friday we went to Covent Garden and Camden Market, then for dinner at this amazing place called Wahaca. It’s a mexican restaurant but they serve things sort of in tapas form, so it’s a great opportunity to try a bunch of different dishes! That evening we had quite the little party at my friend’s flat which turned out to be a weirdly funny and chaotic night. Saturday we explored Portobello market and Harrods, which is by far the coolest department store I have ever been to. The clothes aren’t even anywhere near the best part! They have everything under the sun in that place. It is rather pricey though. Portobello market is much like an antique market and has very beautiful jewelry and antiques. We went to Great Eastern for dinner which is always a favorite and then we went out in Camden to this crazy busy bar called Monarch. This was such a wayback playback with the music they played. Here are some pictures…

Reunion!

The infamous Brick Lane

Best piece of fried goodness I have ever tasted

Camden Market – waiting for our liquid nitrogen ice cream

The result – liquid nitrogen chocolate ice cream with salty caramel and grilled white chocolate.. no big deal

What we ordered at Wahaca

Steak salad with tortilla bowl

TTP – time to party

Blurry memories

Portobello market

Favorite vendor

Notting Hill is just beautiful!

Monarch

Aaaaand thats a wrap. The Man show today was the finale to London Fashion Week for Starworks. This show was basically a collaboration between Topman (Topshop menswear) and Fashion East – a vintage designer situated in the east of London. This year was Man’s 12th season at London Fashion week and 3 innovative designers were selected by Topman to show on the runway for August/Winter 11. Martine Rose, Felipe Rojas Llanos, and New Power Studio showcased their collections. As you’ll see in the pictures, the first designer was a bit outrageous with some pretty scandalous outfits (or costumes rather) and I have to say this was not my favorite. The second line was much simpler and full of bright mesh colored shirts, chunky lace-up combat type boots, and long cloaks. I really enjoyed the trousers from the final designer.

Man show venue – The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden

Backstage

Preparing for runthrough

Runthrough

Big crowd!

Pig costume… enough said

Child dressed as some form of animal with incense coming out of his head

Second designer – much more minimalistic style

Personal favorite

Third designer

Today we worked 2 shows (Marios Schwab and Roksanda Ilincic) bringing us to a total of 6 since the beginning of fashion week on Saturday. How exhausting!

So as promised, I will give a breakdown of the shows we worked starting with Julien Macdonald, which took place last in Mayfair last night. I am choosing to talk about this one first just because I can’t seem to get this show off my mind. This show was my absolute FAVORITE thus far. The venue was in Mayfair at a beautiful, old, gothic church. The music and lights were outrageously edgy – flashing lights, thrashing Korn and other rock music, the entire show just reminded me of rebellious teenagers, and ironic how it all took place in a church.This show was my absolute FAVORITE thus far. The venue was in Mayfair at a beautiful old church. The music and lights were outrageously edgy – flashing lights, rocky loud music, the entire show just seemed rebellious, and ironic how it all took place in a church.The clothes were just beautiful! Main themes were evening gowns, flowy sheer maxi skirts/dresses with leather jackets and furs. The Swarovski collection of dresses was outstanding. This show had a ton of VIP – notably Hilary Alexander, Bianca Jagger, Emma Rose, Sadie Frost, Jaime Winstone and Yasmin Le Bon. The venue was packed and press were going crazy with inquiries. The show ended up starting pretty late, so Hilary Alexander (major UK fashion journalist) decided to make a bit of a scene and walk the catwalk – it was pretty funny. The show ended up being so good though, that Julien himself got a standing ovation. Shows do happen to be quite a bit of stress and chaos, but when she show begins it all becomes worth it.

Getting ready for the show! We all have to wear the same thing – Tucker blouses, black trousers, and hair slicked back in a bun.

Backstage at Julien

Hey all! Just wanted to give you guys a little taste of what London Fashion Week has been like. Saturday we had the Daks show in the morning and Jonathan Saunders show in the evening. Personall, I prefer JS to Daks since JS is more my style (chunky shoes, flowy/silky materials,bright colours and lots of prints), but both shows were lovely. This morning was the Peter Pilotto show at the Topshop venue which was dashing as well. I promise I’ll give more details about each show in specific as soon as I have time! Videos and pictures to come… but to keep you wanting more, here is just a sneak peek…

Jonathan Saunders show – so in love with the collection of shoes – just amazing

Personal favourite

Backstage at this morning’s Peter Pilotto show

Final runthrough of the show

Peter Pilottio catwalk – apologies for poor quality, it was taken from my phone!

Peter Pilotto catwalk

Jonathan Saunders venue for the show

Jonathan Saunders catwalk

Daks show

In just about 12 hours we will be starting the debrief for the DAKS fashion show. Show starts at 9, and interestingly enough fashion shows only last about 10-15 minutes! They are very short, but so exciting. These past couple days have been madness in terms of sample movement – lots of last minute send outs for VIPs to wear to different parties and for fashion week in general. I actually sent out some stuff for a freelancer to wear to the Oscars today so that was cool! Also, yesterday we had the prime ministers wife in our office which was definitely interesting! More to come as the shows go on…. for now I gotta get ready for a birthday party tonight! I have a bunch of friends in from Toronto which is great… however waking up tomorrow will not be an easy task..

Amazing outfit my friend from work wore! The colors together really complement eachother.

coat – wilfred, scarf – asos, top – primark, leggings – hm, shoes – kurt geiger

Amazing top I got from Primark last week for just 5 pounds!

Went to Great Eastern for dinner in Shoreditch – sooo yummy!

Payment issue = fail but great way to make friends with the host

BUSY BUSY BUSY!! That’s what today was. With fashion week coming up and me officially being assigned to specific accounts/clients, today was manic and fun! I got my work laptop and email set up which made me feel much more useful around the office. I am now working for clients/brands Julien Macdonald, Roksanda Ilincic, and Hogan – check them out!

http://www.julienmacdonald.com

http://www.roksandailincic.com

http://www.hoganworld.com

I deal with sample movement, meaning that I assist in making sure that samples are send out to whomever needs them, whether it be VIP (celeb/model) or someone working for a magazine. These people attend lots of parties/events, especially for fashion week and borrow the clothing for different events. Call it celebrity endorsement, if you will. Starworks gets coverage, the brands get exposure, and the stars look great! Its a win-win-win situation. Tons of stuff already on my to do list tomorrow, but this is what makes my days fly, so the truth is that I really look forward to this.

In the moment: holes & rips