Emerging Fervour

I left Nathalie’s house glowing for the Frieze show at 11am…my hair straightened (blow-dried can I add), my clothes were sparkling and my makeup was all in place. Unfortunately, true to form – I forgot my umbrella so I forced Nathalie to share… 45 minutes and half an umbrella later, I arrive at Victoria House to meet my friend Ayse, whose helping me with the photography and I catch a glimpse of my reflection in the window, and I’m a little shocked at the speed at which I turned into a mess. I couldn’t turn back, so had to face the music and head inside.

This was Frieze’s debut womenswear and menswear collection launch so the atmosphere was buzzing with intrigue and excitement. What was going to come down that runway? Check out our highlights from the show below.

Katie from whatkatiewore.com ∨

Pear looking lovely in lace ∨

Esther and Kered ∨

Sacha ∨

Rowdy Superst*r – myspace.com/rowdysuperstar & Fred Butler from fredbutlerstyle.com ∨

Tommy and Gemma ∨

Rena ∨

Antonello ∨

Anna ∨

Crystal ∨

Katie, André & Joèl ∨

Jill from streetstylelondon.blogspot.com∨

For more pictures from the day, visit our Flickr, updated daily during LFW!

At last! London Fashion Week is finally here. We missed you!

Having covered the exhibitors we’re going to during LFW A/W 10…it’s time for the catwalks; so here’s our quickie breakdown of who we’re watching (so far). I’m sick with excitement…literally!

Today, Friday 19/02 ∨

Saffron Knight

Saturday 20/02 ∨

Kinder Aguggini
Lako Bukia
Jacob Kimmie

Sunday 21/02 ∨

Doii Paris
Elliott J. Frieze
Harriet’s Muse

Monday 22/02 ∨

Hermione de Paula

Tuesday 22/02 ∨

Ada Zanditon
Amanda Wakeley
Rachel Freire
Alice Palmer

Wednesday 23/02 ∨

Orschel-Read

For a full list of LFW, Vauxhall Fashion Scout and the Fashion Mavericks show schedules, just click.

If we have any more popping up then we’ll make sure to let you know. We’re going to be super-busy tomorrow so make sure you check out our Twitter page for live updates…plus we’re planning on updating you so regularly during LFW, that you’ll want to give us a little gold star.

The moment the London Fashion Week closes its doors, another one opens and it does so for all of us! London Fashion Weekend is taking place from 25th – 28th February, letting you shop from over 100 designers selling a range of samples, one-off designs, current and past seasons collections at up to 70% off RRP.

There were some amazing bargains to be had last year and the list of designers looks as good this year, if not better. The catwalk rounds up the key looks for Spring/Summer 2010 with help of a selection of British and International fashion forward designers including Betty Jackson, Herve Leger, Jasper Conran, Alice by Temperley, Ashley Isham, Twenty8Twelve and Jaeger London.

See the full designers list on their site www.londonfashionweekend.co.uk/designers and a sneak preview of the discounts at  www.londonfashionweekend.co.uk/designer-discounts-preview

Oooh a bit too late in the day but you better start saving so you can splash out!

When:
25th – 28th September 2010

Thursday:  5pm – 10pm
Friday:        11am – 9pm
Saturday:   9.30am – 7pm
Sunday:      9.30am – 7pm

So I thought I’d try and get your attention with this massive image, taken during S/S 10 back in September. As I said in my previous post, we’ve just been really overwhelmed with the support we’ve been getting and everyday we’re adding to our things to cover. So I’ve mentioned ON|OFF, which we’re planning on covering extensively, but there’s also Somerset House Exhibitions – which is just my favourite… it’s a place where lots of fabulous designers will be showcasing their collections including accessories, ready-to-wear, installations, Headonism (the millinery exhibition), the Lingerie Boudoir, the NEWGEN exhibition, estethica, the new Digital Presentation Space, Made by Scandinavians showcase and a whole load more.

For a full list of the designers exhibiting at Somerset House, check the Exhibitors section on the LFW site.

Righty… enough with the small talk and time for my top 5 exhibitors at Somerset House this season. As we’ve already covered BodyAmr and Beautiful Soul, we needn’t declare our love all over again…they know we love them!

Ada Zanditon ∨

We’ll also be covering the Ada Zanditon catwalk during LFW – can’t wait!

Omar Kashoura ∨

Seeing as we’re planning on seeing almost everything LFW has to offer for A/W 2010, we’re on a military schedule. I’m keeping my mouth shut on the details until I write about it BUT what I will say is that we’ve been given some fantastic catwalks to cover at Somerset House and Vauxhall Fashion Scout, which is so exciting and incredible – seriously…we’re so grateful, thank you!

On our lists of things to do, there are the exhibitors at Somerset House (check tomorrow’s feature on this) and the ON|OFF exhibition at Victoria House. I’ve picked out my top designers exhibiting at ON|OFF – but I’ll probably be lured in by a few others when I’m there.

Here are my top 5:

Derek Lawlor ∨

Established: 2009

Bryce Aime ∨

Established: 2006

Eelko Moorer ∨

Everyone is gearing up for this month’s London Fashion Week. The designers are making the finishing touches to their collection, the exhibitors are making sure they have enough marketing material and business cards to hand out, the buyers are finalising their ‘who to see’ plan and the bloggers are scheduling their weeks in the run up to, through and past fashion week.

With so much to cover your first port of call must be exploring the designer exhibitions at Somerset House and the ON|OFF Section at Victoria House. Back in September, we covered BodyAmr, Kron by KronKron, Beekay, Beautiful Soul, Rachael Cassar, Rocio Bags and a few others from the exhibitions and this season we’re planning on covering a lot more!

19TH – 23RD FEB EMERGING DESIGNERS EXHIBITIONS FROM SOMERSET HOUSE ∨

AND ON|OFF 19TH – 22ND FEB∨

You can also check out all the things to do in between shows with the London Fashion Week City Guide A/W 10. In fact, LFW along with Red Maps have provided us with maps that are available on site, you can also open a pdf and print it out, just visit the map page on the LFW site.

Has it really been a whole year? Oh how time is flying by when you are having fun! And although we know there has been a lot of hard work for Beautiful Soul in the last year we’re delighted to sing Happy Birthday!! Well done on an amazing year and we’re chuffed to have been part of it.

We’ve been following Beautiful Soul since the London Fashion Week and as the doors open again this February, Beautiful Soul will be celebrating its first year of exponential growth.

Ethics and luxury have never seemed to walk side by side, but the arrival of Beautiful Soul last year has shaken up the fashion industry and proven that aspirational high end fashion can have it’s roots in ethical design and manufacturing principles.

One year on, lets take a look at the success of Beautiful Soul

♥ February 2009
Winner of the Ethical Fashion Forum’s Innovation award.

♥ September 2009
Beautiful Soul launches its website and online boutique (www.beautiful-soul.co.uk) in order to retail its debut collection ‘smallprint’.

Joanna, I love you, you’re the one, the one for me. Ok, so these might be the lyrics to Kool and the Gang’s ‘Joanna’ but f*** me I do love Joanna Vanderpuije, and these pieces from this emerging designer are DEFINITELY for me.

Oh yes we will!! Just check out the stunning ‘Miss Butterfly’ Spring/Summer 2010 collection and you will too. We fell in love with ‘Beautiful Soul’ at the London Fashion Week and it is hard to believe it was Nicola’s debut.

Inspired by Giacomo Puccini’s, Madam Butterfly and produced from Japanese vintage komonos (dating back to the 1940’s), vintage saris, Ahimsa peace silk, Fair-Trade organic jacquard, handloom cotton, and bamboo jersey, each piece is exquisite and on top of that exclusive!! We just love the thought of going a bit greener and how easy would it be with garments like this?!

We’re so excited about ‘Beautiful Soul’ and welcome them with open arms. We’ll be getting to know Nicola a bit better so watch this space as we’ll find out what is in store for ‘Beautful Soul’.

If you can’t wait until next season, get a piece for this winter from one of the following stockists:

• Beautiful Soul
• Ascension