This isn’t the kind of round-up where I break down each collection and give you a full on background to every designer and their portfolio of work. I see no point when there are countless more qualified people than myself who have already written reports on the matter, so I’m not about to add my tuppence worth. And besides, this isn’t a fashion article, it’s a blog post so I’ll try to keep it light and lean.

‘My London Fashion Week’ is exactly that – a round-up of how I experienced the shows and everything else that goes with it, and try to make sense of what can truly be an overwhelming week. I think the important thing to remember before all else, is that LFW and indeed all fashion weeks are an industry event that helps keep that retail chain churning and is crucial to what is now a huge part of our ecomony. We’re talking hundreds of millions here and that’s just the UK.

I try to keep this in mind whilst being easily distracted by the side shows that can interfere but also sometimes enhance (we all love a bit of people watching) with what fashion week is really about. As you can tell I’m in two minds about the plethora of fashionistas who mill around outside the shows waiting to be snapped by the increasing amount of would be street style photographers who seem to be multiplying a the rate of knots – probably not helped by blogs like mine or the ones I feverously read every evening but it’s still a mad thing to witness.

When it comes down to the nitty gritty of the fashion itself, I’m again in two minds. I know what I like and I certainly know what I don’t. However, working in fashion means I must to try to have an open mind – trust me, this is something I actively have to work on. Whilst I can appreciate the fashion I wouldn’t necessarily wear or use in my work I can get ridiculously excited about collections that I would. Of the shows I witnessed throughout the week, without a doubt Margaret Howell came top. Her sheer brilliance is in the simplicity of her clothing – always consistent, never boring and eternally wearable.

At the other end of the scale I would put Haizhen Wang, who is a designer I know next to nothing about. There was certainly a lot about his collection I admired and it was visually striking yet the collection was pretty much the antithesis of what I’m about…..although I am a sucker for a cape and his was a pretty awesome one.

House of Holland had heaps that I wanted to grab off the catwalk and wear there and then but the spectacle of the whole thing mildly bothered me. I inadvertently took a picture of the front row, which pretty much sums up the the show, i.e. bright young things lending support to their designer friend and getting a bit of publicity in the process. Nought wrong with that really but ’tis quite strange too, no?

Then we had the incredible surroundings at the Julien McDonald show. The air was filled with the scent of about a hundred candles and the whole ambience was decadent, over the top and dare I say fabulous (I secretly loved it). Pop stars on the front row and a proud Mum and Dad also were there to lend support……um, adorable! The glitzy dresses were a bit more edgy than his usual fare and the whole thing was just fun – all I managed to get a photo of was the outrageous chandalier filled with Lord knows how many lighted candles, and that was only one of four in the room. I don’t envy the guy who had to light them.

Daks is always perfection, in my humble opinion. So classically British and more to the point they are clothes made for Women, not girls – isn’t that so refreshing? Aren’t we bored of super girly clothes yet? Layers, lengths and a great classic colour palette. Now tell me, what in heck is wrong with that?

The surprise of the week for me was Todd Lynn. Again, not a designer I am well versed in and I enjoyed the unusual pleated peplums that wafted down the runway. Plus, I do have a penchant for great tailoring (Lynn’s specialty) so it makes sense I should like it. I did read he uses a ‘ considerable amount of fur and leather for good measure’ which made my heart sink but I think we can leave that topic alone for the purposes of this post.

Jasper Conran‘s bold retro offerings were filled with juicy hues of orange, pink and yellow. Every outfit the ultimate ensemble, some of which were topped with ridiculously cute hats made by Stephen Jones, all of which finished off with what I could most accurately describe as the only mid heel shoe worth owning next season.

Oh, John Rocha. Those tulip shaped dresses and the supersize swing coats very nearly had me drooling on the runway. Slightly off beat, distinct and almost a bit too mad to wear in day to day life – none of which stops me from wanting to own more than half the collection just so I can admire it on a daily basis.

And yes, I can confirm that Cara Delevingne is just as beautiful is real life, if not more so. I can’t imagine anyone else looking quite as good as she did in that terrific Peter Pilotto dress. It also transpires I have a thing for Richard Nicoll (who knew?!) – clean, modern, beautiful, I was quite taken with his aw13 collection and now I’m educating myself on his past work.

There was more, of course, but we’ll be here all night if I go on any longer so I think i’ll leave it there for all our sakes. I’ve pretty much just scratched the surface but bed beckons and soon another day in the world of fashion will begin. I’m currently in the midst of organising tickets for Paris and hoping that maybe one day I might get to go in person. My money’s on Rochas and Miu Miu hitting the nail on the proverbial fashionistas (there’s that word again!) head, what do you reckon?

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