Fashion Assistants' Blog: Day One

By Alice Watt

We don’t get the cars or the front row seats. Instead, us fashion assistants get to experience the behind-the-scenes action, the people watching, the trend spotting, the parties – and then some more parties. It’s long hours and lots of walking but it’s what our job's all about. London Fashion Week is where we see the new season collections, the new trends and discover new designers. What’s more, there’s tonnes of styling inspiration on offer and it’s bags of fun to boot.

So here’s a little insight into the life of an assistant at London Fashion Week. And up first it’s Day One, through the eyes of Alice Watt:

In the office at 7:30am and with a collection of black LFW branded cars at the door waiting to whisk editors to their first shows, it can only mean one thing, it’s London Fashion Week. And here’s just a handful of the tickets…

Before hitting the shows, our week kicked off in the best way possible, with a swift (and quite expensive) stop-off at Topshop, where the J.W. Anderson collection had landed in stores just an hour earlier.

Then it was off to St Martin’s Lane hotel where Dominic Jones was showcasing his SS13 collection – an amazing selection of spiked, claw-like and animalistic jewellery- and his first ever hoop earrings (which we love).

It’s a LFW tradition to come to St Martin’s Lane Hotel on the first day of Fashion Week, it's one of the most stylish venues on the schedule, and it's always great to kick off the week with a glass of champagne and preview some of London's smaller yet cooler designers.

Friday is a relatively quiet day on the schedule and the best opportunity for us to look around the exhibitions. Today my favourite discovery was Kyle Hopkins and his miniature people-embellished jewellery.

The NewGen poster pop-up shop where you can pick up one of 10 posters designed by Topshop NewGen sponsored designers…

And a special one-off collaborations between London’s favourite designers and Disney. From Michael van der Ham and Giles to Richard Nicoll and Husem El Odeh, these are a few of the special pieces:

While walking around we bumped into Susie Bubble hard at work in (and on the floor of) the press area:

Eudon Choi put on a truly amazing show. Patent leather sporty jackets and gloriously textured shoes... Take a look at the full collection to see why we’re such fans – and why he’s our stand-out favourite from day one of London Fashion Week.

Later we spied Alison Mosshart and Poppy Delevingne front row at Sass & Bide:

(picture by Madeleine Bowden)

After the shows it was off to Matches for a champagne reception to celebrate the launch of the store's dedicated London Designers installation. With a brass band greeting guests, the Marylebone store was filled with fashion PRs, journalists and stylists, as well as the British Fashion Council's Harold Tilman and designers Sophie Hulme, Patrick Grant and Osman. In the main window was an amazing Giles creation and the rails and mannequins were bursting with amazing British design: