LONDON FASHION WEEKEND

SO, last weekend I got to do something SUPER exciting... I got to go to London Fashion Weekend!

One of the brands I work for was sponsoring the GILES show and although I did try to wangle a pass for that, alas it wasn't to be, but I DID get to go along to scope out or presence at the consumer show part of LFW held the weekend after London Fashion Week proper. Exciting!

Although I was there TECHNICALLY for work purposes, still an excuse to buy a new outfit, obviously, and I settled on this brightly coloured patterned top and skirt from Toppers:

 I don't feel like it comes up all that well in this picture but I was really happy with it in real life. It was smart but still fun and COMFY, which, given that I was flying down and back in the same day, was a big consideration.

Coffee and stylist on the 8.30 flight from Glasgow. Sorted!

Blue skies all the way!

OH HEY, I'm in a lift in London. I'm wearing that suit thing from Topshop, my Topshop coat, Zara bag and Urban Outfitters shoes. I had wanted to wear my Burberry trench and Mulberry bag (dahhling) but I'm very protective of the trench and couldn't trust myself with it for a full day. SPILLAGES people. Also, that Zara bag fits EVERYTHING in it, Mary Poppins style.

British Museum from the back of a taxi.

I was meeting a client who was running late so NATURALLY I spent a fortune on these wee mini version of three of my favourite books from the Somerset House gift shop. Over £30. Worth it.

Front row for the Hilary Alexander-styled trend show!

Nice breeks

Nice tache

Nice, um, kaftan thing.

Pretty headdress

My favourite trend - Dolls House. Lots of pink and PVC and huge shoes.

Finale.

Very boozy "working" lunch at Tom's. Properly scooped by now...

So much so I spent 15 mins in the toilets taking moody black and white selfies and massively holding up the ginormous queue that had formed behind me. SORRYNOTSORRY!

Somerset House looking CHILLY.

So after the shows and schmoozing and eating I found myself in Rokit in Covent Garden stumbling between racks and racks of hugely-overpriced vintage stuff. Almost spent a fortune on a fleece-lined denim jacket... MISTAKE. I blame the champers.

Where the big bucks got spent... Terminal 5 duty free.

Cath Kidson stand awesomeness.

Plane boobage.

In terms of the trends on offer at the shows I was most impressed with Eastern Influence and Doll's House. The others were fairly predictable and didn't feel very current, but these two were right on the money coming out of what was shown at LFW in September and I think, if you stick to a pretty statement Kimono jacket or lots of edgy candy pinks and chunky sandals this summer you'll be BANG ON. Zara already have both trends fairly well covered in store at the moment... RANDOM ASIDE. Anyway, check me trying to talk about trends like an expert! WHIT.

If I'm honest I was just pumped to be in London for the day. Hopefully we'll have an even bigger presence in September and I MAY get to go to a show but who knows. It was a nice wee day out nonetheless, even if I did drop a small fortune at duty free.

Ended up getting talked into an Estee Lauder Double Wear foundation which I've not used in about ten years but I'm sort of loving it again. May well do a wee review on it and why it works for me when I would usually go for a satin or dewey finish foundation as a rule... OH GOD does anyone care? It's 16.59 on a Friday and I've lost it.

MEADHAM KIRCHOFF SS13 AND A BLOG BREAKDOWN

I KNOW London Fashion Week has been over for ages and I meant to do this post a while back but I got totally sidelined by a PR post and then the Emmys and completely forgot. It seemed a shame to waste these beautiful images though, so LUCKY YOU, you get another irrelevant and out of date Fashion Week post! I'm so good to you.

Truthfully there weren't all that many LFW shows I was overly impressed with. I don't know if it's so much the collections themselves or me being less "into" it as I've been in the past, but I found it hard to get buzzed like before. Mulberry was a highlight though (loved watching the FROW get settled on the live stream - Olivia Palermo you dawl) as was Meadham Kirchoff.

I've had a soft spot for Meadham Kirchoff since their AW10 collection blew my mind - veils, crowns, hunners o' bangles, bright pinks, stickers, heavy eyeliner... Every model was like an exponentially-cooler version of my inner 13 year old.

This year it seems Ed and Ben took a leaf from Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, channelling a pastel-coloured 18th century France with an air of frivolous, luxurious excess...

Gaudy awesomeness, right? Amazing! I still don't think it beats my favourite collection ever from them...

MK - SS12

..but it's right up there. Are they trying to be uber clever, commenting on the global financial crisis and the resulting age of austerity we've all been forced into... Or are they just having fun with bows and costume jewellery - playing dress up like little kids do? More is more. Let them eat cake. etc.

 I'm inclined to think it's the latter, but, regardless, I love me a bold, fun, ostentatious collection that doesn't take itself too seriously LIKE LOADS AND LOADS OF OTHERS. For that reason Meadham Kirchoff will always be on my must see list for fashion week.

What do you guys think? Love it? Hate it? Are these posts even interesting?

I feel like I'm having a bit of an existential crisis with FFS at the moment. Posts about my recent purchases and wishlists and stuff are always well received and generally attract the most comments, but they don't tend to inspire me as much. I sometimes feel they're a bit of a cop out since they're easy to write and take hardly any thought. But on the other hand I get a kick out of putting together the likes of collection reviews, even though I am a complete layman and my opinion might be totally wack.

I write FFS for myself, mostly on my break at work as an afterthought, to basically have something to DO. I've been doing it for nearly 2 years and I still have less than 300 followers because I almost NEVER promote it, I never post outfit pictures of myself, I hardly ever comment on other people's posts (a bad habit I'm trying hard to break) and I regularly abandon it for over a week at a time. That pretty much breaks EVERY SINGLE RULE there is about blogging! I've never really cared before - blogging isn't real life and if this all disappeared I wouldn't cry or nuffink (maybe) - but I'm fast approaching 200,000 views and I don't want to be BORING those of you who do read. I feel like I've kind of lost my direction.

Should I just stick to the highstreet stuff, recent purchases and wishlists? Or maybe I should take a leaf out of Ayden's book and start trying to be a bit more personal in my posts...? I don't know. Is it fine the way it is? 200,000 views is a drop in the ocean compared to other folk's blogs I am well aware, but it feels like a lot to me and I think it's freaked me out a bit. I might take some time off and have a think. Or I might just carry on doing whatever the hell I like and ignoring all the rules. Do other people feel like this? Am I being dramatic? Do I just need to lay off the coffee at 7:14 am in the morning? What is the meaning of life? Where did I leave my keys..?

Oh hell. Just ignore me. Here's the trailer for Marie Antoinette because although it's a STINKER of a film, it sure is pretty to look at.

NYFW: MARC JACOBS AND ANNA SUI

Watching the Twitter reviews of the Marc Jacobs SS13 show flooding in, I couldn't help but roll my eyes like the cynical bastard I am. Sixties, Marc? REALLY? Yawn.

But then I saw it. And you know what I realised? NOT ONE PAIR OF TROUSERS. Finally my dream! As a short-arse who's packin' in the back, trousers and I have a horribly abusive love/hate relationship, and after season after season with tailored or patterned breeks taking centre stage, it's a relief to finally see a collection that shunned them entirely. In typical wacky Marc Jacobs style, rather than offer us an alternative he just pulled them completely, leaving the models strutting about in their pants. Not sure I can (or WANT to) see that look recreated on Argyle St next summer.

But overall, as much as I was ready to be massively unimpressed, I'm afraid I had to eat my eye-rolling. Or something. This was simple and elegant... Chung-ready and trouserless. Basically perfect.

And guess what else... The makeup was to DIE FOR. Just check out the brows on Cara!

I like that they didn't go for an obvious winged liner but instead opted for a smoky cut-crease, and paled out the lips. I basically rock a bold brow and nude lip on a daily basis and now amma hankerin to try this slightly more amped-up version for a night out. What do you guys reckon? ALSO, could the extreme side-parting from my days as an emo really be back on trend?

Another collection worth mentioning is Anna Sui. Part Where the Wild Things Are, part girlish rock n roll, part Harajuku, this is a collection I'd happily style someone like Gwen Steffani in. And, I mean, she's amazing, so...

And again, loving the makeup:

   

What did you guys make of NYFW this year? I feel like most of it passed me by to be honest... And I hate myself a bit for saying it but I was mightily let down by Alexander Wang. SOB!

Onto LFW now. Highlights are sure to be old favourites Christopher Kane, ACNE, Topshop Unique, Meadham Kirchhoff and Mary Katrantzou. Are we all PUMPED?