By Alice Watt
There’s barely been a moment to stop and breathe/take it all in, but we’ve suddenly found ourselves at our final destination. Following on from a party-filled night, today is the fifth and, sadly, final day of the capital's riotous shows. And it’s Meadham day!
Thankfully Day Four's 12 hour show marathon has been reduced into a manageable, relatively relaxing schedule. But there is still the small matter of the Meadham Kirchhoff show. We want to make the most of the last day of shows, so, yes, it’s another 6:30am alarm call…
Monday was the day of the British heavyweights. But with Burberry, Christopher Kane and Erdem all ticked off, it’s the turn of the young Brit club. Thomas Tait, Simone Rocha and Meadham Kirchhoff are the names jumping out of today’s schedule. We can’t wait see what they have in store for spring summer 13…
By 9am we are already seated at our first show. In a graffitied car park on the Thames, naturally…
While the editors sat amongst Kate Moss and Alexa Chung on the Mulberry front row, we made the most of an opportunity to look out for trends and styling inspiration from the bloggers and photographers on the streets. Day Five is owned by London’s cool designers so it attracts a distinctly more adventurous and quirky crowd…
We've loved Simone Rocha from the start. And this collection is her best yet…
The venue of the day is undoubtedly The Savoy hotel. Roksanda Ilincic picked the perfect location to display her elegant collection…
Shoes are always a talking point amongst us assistants. Running across town on public transport means we’ve worn flats all week and have spotted some great styles. But with so many beautiful heels on the feet of editors, we can’t help but feel envious…
Our next stop off is at the Topshop showspace where both Nasir Mazhar and Meadham Kirchoff are showing. Held in a beautiful private garden in the heart of central London, it’s a great opportunity for photographers to snap the editors, and the area has been an inspiring hub of energy and activity all week.
Nasir Mazhar is never one to show his collection in an ordinary way. Today he chose to set up a hair salon within the Topshop venue’s café, showing off selection of hats (and underwear) while two MC’s battled it out.
Another reason we love the Topshop venue? The catering is our saviour every London Fashion Week! On today’s menu: champagne, chicken salad, and more champagne…
And so the time has come. One of the most eagerly awaited shows of the season: Meadham Kirchhoff. The question always is: what will they do next? They’ve had primary school ballerinas, can can girls, witch-craft and disco queens. The answer for spring/summer 13 is beautifully, embellished extravagance: Minnie Mouse-emblazoned, cake-eating models to swash-buckling knee high boots and baroque ruffles. Sheer joy and delight fills the show space.
With Nasir Mazhar’s presentation still in full swing, we spy Derek Blasberg and US ELLE’s Kate Lanphear dancing to the hip hop soundtrack…
One of the last shows of the day is sequin-loving Ashish. This season he’s stripped back the labels aesthetic for a 90s, denim clad, Reebook wearing tomboy. We loved it. And want/need/must-own those glitter ankle socks, in every colour.
After the Ashish show, we take a quick tour of Somerset House. It’s a beautiful venue, overlooking the river and we probably won’t be back again until February…
As soon as we leave, we’re snapped by ELLE’s Fashion Week Wardrobe photographer Phill Taylor. He’s rarely seen this side of the lens but we couldn’t resist showing you a little extra snippet of our Fashion Week life…
Before heading to our final on-schedule show of the day we stop off at Vauxhall Fashion Scout to check out a couple of designers. Like magpies, we’re instantly drawn to Mawi’s new handbag line, and Michael van der Ham’s shiny jumpers…
Here it is, the final show of the London Fashion week calendar for September 2012. Christopher Bailey and Colin McDowell crowned Haizhen Wang as this year's winner of the Fashion Fringe prize.
The day - and week - ends with a well-deserved cocktail (lychee vodka, in case you were wondering) where we finally get to reflect on everything we’ve seen. From the bonkers to the enigmatically beautiful, it’s been a week that has further cemented London’s status on the international fashion calendar. And we’ve loved every minute of it.
While the editors pack their bags and fly to Milan for the next round, we’re back to the office tomorrow, wondering exactly how soon we'll be calling in those wonderful spring/summer 13 clothes to shoot, and catching up on all the action on ELLEuk.com and @ELLEUK…
Catch up on all the shows and read ELLE’s reviews by clicking here…
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