My better-late-than-never review of London Fashion Weekend

I know London Fashion Weekend happened a few weekends ago now (between 21st-24th of February to be exact), but as I wrote in my last post, work has been ridiculously busy so I haven't had time to give my blog the love that I would like to.

LFWeekend is the commercial sister of London Fashion Week, and is held by Vodafone at Somerset House in London (the very same venue as LFW). It gives us mere mortals the chance to grab some great fashion bargains, whilst waltzing down the corridors of the glamorous Somerset House, followed by catwalk shows displaying either the upcoming trends of the next season, or showcasing a designer show from the previous fashion week.

This was my first LFWeekend experience, and I attended with my beautiful Mummy on the Saturday evening. We had tickets which allowed us into the shopping area for a few hours, and which also included entry to the designer showcase of the Issa SS13 collection, a Radley designed tote show bag, and the latest copy of Elle Magazine. I wore a rather adventurous leopard print coat from Karen Millen, with black jeans, and my black Topshop Chelsea boots (you can read my post about those boots here).

The closest I'll ever get to the catwalk!

My Mum and I had a great time browsing all of the pop-up mini shops in the rooms of Somerset House. There were some beautiful clothes and accessories on offer, mostly bang on trend for the coming season. Unfortunately we didn't quite have enough time to make it to the beauty section, but it did look great, with hair cuts from Toni & Guy on offer! There was also a room dedicated to the launch of the Marc Jacobs Diet Coke illustrations, to mark 30 years of Diet Coke.

After our little shopping session we got in line to watch the Issa SS13 collection go down the catwalk. Excitingly these shows are in the same show space as the LFW ones in the Somerset House courtyard, so it really is a great way of experiencing the fashion industry. 

I was delighted to be watching the Issa SS13 collection as it is based on the vibrancy and exoticness of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as tt made me that little bit more excited about going to Rio next March/April! Daniella Helayel is of course Brazilian, so what better theme for a collection than her native country?

The music echoed carnivale and the rainforest, the clothes were bright and billowy, and the headdresses were reminiscent of the exotic flowers and birds that can be found in Brazil. It was an exciting show to say the least. I just loved the colours and the excitement. To view the original show photos, as archived in Vogue, please click here.

One important thing that I learnt from LFWeekend (and that I had failed at rather miserably the week before at LFW), was how to better capture photographs of fast moving models! The lighting on catwalks actually makes it rather tricky to catch that perfect photograph (unless of course you are a Vogue photographer and have years of experience and thousands of pounds worth of equipment!). 

I really did enjoy my LFWeekend experience (thank you Vodafone!) - and think it's really important for these commercial shows to take place; yes, fashion is often described as "exclusive" but actually more recently it is becoming more "inclusive" and is gaining a lot of inspiration from the hight street itself, so consumer shows like LFWeekend are vital for the industry to show its fans that they are valued. 

Love Lucy x