London Fashion Week: Day Two
This is inevitable: one day you wake up in the morning, and on the street - torrential rain. London is London, it rains here in about a day or a little more, but Fashion Week and this weather is not very compatible. Those who are walking dogs at this time (no one wakes up so early on Saturday) wear rubber boots and raincoats. Anyone who hurries to the first shows, Daks or Charles Anastase, pretend that it doesn't rain at all. It is not clear how, with a minimum number of umbrellas, everything looks so good. However, all smoke gently under the tents. By the way, they say that next year it will be impossible to smoke in the yard of Somerset House; I wonder if the models will manage on a diet only from Coca-Cola without cigarettes?
The first person I meet in the morning is Scott Schumann, who has just flown in from New York. We chat about the weather, he introduces me to Garanz; then I begin to greet politely bored photographers. In the second season, everyone starts to recognize each other. I used to think that the main way to be in the lens of photographers is, say, a Chloé bag or Prada shoes from the latest collection. It also seemed that this method was the only one. It's not like that at all. The only thing that photographers really do not like is repeats and cliches. And they are easy to understand. The biggest misfortune is that street fashion blogs have become the main guideline on how to dress. This is what Anna Dello Rousseau says about in the article devoted to blogs and bloggers The Street Is Their Oyster: "When I read a fashion magazine, I no longer see what fashion looks like. I see beautiful pictures, but I don’t understand how I wear this coat is in real life. "
Street fashion photographers in the yard of Somerset House
The vast majority of those who go to the shows, can be divided into small groups. The first is the most expensive shoes and bags (works great for photographers), the second is a typical black flaw for London: a combination of black tights, disheveled jeans and leather with rivets, the third is total black with rare cowardly gray and white impurities, the fourth is vintage dresses, the fifth - just a little dress of any color and tall, tall heels, sixth - not very nice drag queens and freaks, which very rarely look really great.
At the same time, street fashion photographers are not looking for fashion at all. They are looking for inner balance, self-irony, modernity, originality and, forgive, style. But you can still make up a little guide on what to wear if you want to be stopped and asked to be photographed for a blog. First of all, it’s better to wear less black and try not to copy what has already been in all blogs. Photographers prefer girls in hats - if not lucky with long blond hair. The less layers of clothes - the better: they look bad in the photo. Balance and self-irony are feminine things in combination with something masculine (hats, sneakers, boyfriend s sweatshirts), or different textures and moods - chiffon and silk and knitted sweaters, or the ability to wear evening dress with a checkered shirt and sneakers. As for the hair, now, for example, in London, the main trend is dip dye, when the ends of the hair seemed to be dipped in pink, green or blue paint. True, the day before yesterday Bleach Salon, which became famous for this, opened a branch in the flagship Topshop on Oxford Street, so in a couple of months about half of London will look like this. Total looks are beautiful Anna Dello Russo, but also those brands whose total looks she can afford matter. And, of course, a sense of humor. Small details like neon stealth always work.
On the second day, the LFW usually all just fly from New York and get into a rut. Appears its own routine - coffee at Tom's (a cafe in Somerset House) between shows, a favorite computer in the blog bar. Between shows, buses run for buyers, journalists and photographers. On Saturday, the most anticipated were House of Holland, Jaeger, Issa London and Jonathan Saunders. At the House of Holland come fashionable London celebrities under 25 years old, Henry's best friends: Pixie Lott, Alex Chang, Alicia Dellal. Issa's show was delayed for half an hour, which is not very typical for the week - Prince William's Kate Middleton was very much waiting for the bride, but she did not come. The show still snapped applause with a surprisingly simple technique - take a few atypical models: a girl with forms and a woman about 60 years old.
Jonathan Saunders show. View all the shows of the second day of London Fashion Week
Jonathan Saunders was especially waited for the show - firstly, he always chooses very nice rooms with huge windows, a long podium and responsibly treats the light, and secondly, his last collection still does not come off the pages of Vogue and the rest of the gloss. It seems that Hamish Bowles (Vogue) came to the show right from the airport. I was pleased with the success of Jaeger London: for the brand, which is essentially engaged in business clothing, the collection was diverse, the idea was complete, and the reception was warm. (By the way, in the spring the first Jaeger store will open in Moscow). Jaeger London develops the idea of a coat: overcoat, trapeze, cape, floor coat, wrap coat, single-breasted, double-breasted, coat-dresses, sweater-coat and skirt-coat. After the show, we managed to meet at five-o-clock tea with tired Stuart Stockdale, designer Jaeger, who said he hadn’t slept for a day, but was still very pleased.
In the evening, we were waited for by the clogged show of students of Central St Martins, the presentation of the new film of the House of Holland brand in Soho - it’s the after-party of the show. The film was shot by Test Mag - this is, in fact, an online platform that video art director Jamie Perlman invented and founded. They make "test" shooting with all the young and talented. The film, by the way, deserves attention, despite the fact that it is, in fact, a video book of a new collection.