Culture Politick

This London Fashion Week features 68 catwalk shows and more than 200 labels in the companion exhibition. The week:

• Regularly boosts the capital’s economy by more than £30 million;
• Generates more than £100 million in orders;
• And worldwide media coverage valued at more than £60 million.

More than 5,000 press and buyers are thought to have attended, but many eyes were on the American Vogue editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, who flew in to attend the Burberry show. The perennially-chic editor-in-chief of French Vogue, Carine Roitfeld, visited LFW for the first time, arriving along with the editor-in-chief of Vogue China, Angelica Chung.

Ms Wintour wasn’t the only one gracing Burberry with her presence; our very own Mr Vaizey was also in attendance. Burberry’s Christopher Bailey was ranked #2 in The Sunday Times Style’s list of Britian’s 20 Most Talented Designers (see the full list HERE and The Sunday Telegraph Stella’s favourites HERE). Style ranked Bailey second only to Christopher Kane, whose show Ed went to see on Monday, before trotting off to Erdem (ranked #6) later that afternoon. The Telegraph has a piece on The Rise of “the Erdem Woman” HERE. Team Shadow DCMS also attended PPQ; the Welsh Designer Collective’s Elinor Franklin, Emma Griffiths, and Josie Beckett; and Hermione de Paula shows.

Ed said today:

“London Fashion Week is a fantastic success story, showcasing British fashion around the world.  Fashion is one of our largest industries, and it is vital that politicians support it and take it seriously.”

Ed topped off all the show audience-ing by hosting his own extremely successful Shadow DCMS Creative Industries Networking Event. Harold Tillman, Chairman of the British Fashion Council co-hosted, and guests included all from Samantha Cameron to Alexandra Shulman; Editor of Vogue UK. Our bash has been covered by Dan Hasby-Oliver‘s fantastic fashion blog HERE.

We do love a good fashion blog at Team Shadow DCMS, and, almost as if seeking to serve, the kindly Observer has just charted The 10 Best Fashion Bloggers in this week’s LFW inspired edition HERE, as we’ve summarised here:

Tavi Gevinson tavi-thenewgirlintown.blogspot.com; written by a girl with whom the fashion world has fallen in love but whom describes herself as “a tiny 13 year old dork that sits inside all day wearing awkward jackets and pretty hats”.

Gary Card garycardiology.blogspot.com; by a 28-year-old Brit who appears to be everyone’s favourite creative; he’s made guitars for Lady Gaga, window displays for Stella McCartney, and set designs for shoots in Vogue and V Magazine.

Scott Schuman thesartorialist.blogspot.com; since launching the blog in 2005, this 41-year-old New Yorker has been named one of Time magazine‘s biggest design influences, worked for Burberry, modelled for Gap and published a book.

Susanna Lau stylebubble.typepad.com; this 26-year-old Londoner is all about the young and the trendy, and she’s shown a real knack for highlighting young designers hovering on the verge of success. Her judgment is trusted by the 10,000 people who check her posts each day, and Dazed&Confused has made her commissioning editor of its website.

David Fischer highsnobiety.com; established in 2005 by Swiss-based Fischer, the original site proved so popular it now has five offshoots and Fischer has had to bring in a couple of editors to help him on HighSnobiety.

Joe Sinclair and Katie Mackay whatkatiewore.com; the original challenge was for Mackay, 27, to wear a different outfit every day for a year, with Sinclair, 28, documenting the look, the labels and what they got up to. The blog became so popular (7,000 hits a day) that they couldn’t ignore all the messages begging them not to stop once they hit their year deadline last month.

Jessica Morgan and Heather Cocks gofugyourself.celebuzz.com; set up in 2004, millions of readers now check their blog to chortle at their latest barbed posts, which poke fun at outfits and their celebrity wearers in equal measure. They’ve also published a book (see HERE) of the best – by which they mean worst – outfits that have graced the website.

Gabi Gregg youngfatandfabulous.com; blogs for larger women is, the Observer says, the new chic niche following fashion’s sudden fascination with girls larger than an autumnal twig. They say the best is Young Fat and Fabulous by a woman who’s 23, from Detroit and a size 20 and putting up “‘real women’… with a panache and honesty you don’t get from an overpaid stylist.”

Mikael Colville-Andersen copenhagencyclechic.com; Danish filmmaker Mikael Colville-Andersen, 42, was way ahead of the curve on fashion’s newfound obsession with cycling. Since 2007 his blog has documented beautiful bikes and riders who deal with the two-pedalled conundrum of looking good yet wearing practical outfits in fine style.

Will Boehlke asuitablewardrobe.dynend.com; this San Franciscan gentleman’s solemn missives cover the minutiae of traditional menswear, from the right tie to wear to the wedding to the best cloth for a bespoke overcoat. A typical entry starts: “It seems as though Kirby Alison and I have been corresponding about garment bags for a couple of years.”

In addition to The Observer’s ten, we at Team Vaizey are big fans of Madeleine O’flaherty avogueidea.wordpress.com.

We particularly like her Behind the Scenes page HERE, and her Red Carpet page HERE. Have a quick squiz of the latter and see whether you can disagree with a word Ms O’flaherty says. We certainly never can, which is why we took her along with us to LFW and asked for her take on some of the shows we saw. This is what she said:

Burberry Prorsum

With Burberry breaking new ground by broadcasting their show in 3D across the world, and instigating a fashion frenzy with the first-time opportunity to buy the looks online fresh off the runway, the collection had so much to live up to. With a dark colour palette that lent heavily on black with some khaki, the variation of orange, antique gold and a splash of bright blue were used very effectively in this large collection of 53 looks.  Ranging from skin tight, with exquisitely ruched skirts and tops clinging to the body, to the oversized, with a great variety of shearling jackets which are sure to be very visible next winter, the show had lots for everyone.  The wool jacket and the lined boots made us think of wartime pilots and throughout the collection the use of buttons, straps, exposed zips and heavily embellished bags continued the military reference. Like the coats, the over-the-knee snakeskin boots are sure to be a huge seller. Christopher Bailey is quoted as saying: “I was thinking of uniforms and cadet girls—but it all started when I looked at an aviator jacket in the archive. Then, as I started designing into it, I realized it could be as versatile as the trench—strong and sexy, masculine and feminine,” and this season he showed he continues to take Burberry from strength to strength.

Hermione de Paula

I saw this show at Vauxhall Fashion Scout.  Hermione de Paula is their Merit Award winner and follows in the footsteps of William Tempest (whose clothes have been worn by Emma Watson and Victoria Beckham) and David Koma (whose fans include Beyonce and Cheryl Cole). Hermione studied at Central Saint Martin’s and has worked for Galliano, McQueen and Dior which helped her develop her own design aesthetic with its emphasis on hand painted materials and collage prints. This collection was entitled ‘Polly Crystalline’ and was all about a fantasy femme fatale who is fitted tightly into garments that accentuate and yet entrap her beauty. The dresses were therefore aggressively structured and made up in powerful black and white prints and the models wore multi-toned, futuristic wigs.

Erdem

Erdem presented the array of stunning prints you expect from him but with a more adult and produced twist. Darker and less floral than his S/S collection, the prints in this collection had motifs of diving swallows, autumn leaves and an almost African palette. Heavenly splashes of yellow and turquoise caught the eye and really made the dresses stand out. The models looked fresh with messily scraped back hair and a not too heavy dark eye. Some of the appliqué on the clothes was new and very appealing, as was the dark almost dirty grey lace he used in a full length dress. The shoes were heavy but beautiful and made for an edgy contrast against the more feminine patterns. I thought this was an exciting collection and very wearable, which Samantha Cameron obviously thought too as she was photographed in one of his designs.

PPQ

Designers Amy Molyneaux and Percy Parker keep PPQ the label that attracts the young and the cool. With the models’ dark eyes and flowing hair this collection was for the powerful urban woman. A colour palette of black and gold, with lots of fringing and metallics gave a clear story and theme, and there were nice contrasts between the fur and the metallics, between an LBD with a frill collar and pocket detail and the power suits and some luxuriously warm full-length jackets. And I loved the almost bondage tie shoes.

Roksanda llincic

Roksanda Ilincic was showing at On/Off this season. I love her clothes, they are so feminine but with details and qualities that make them statement but wearable pieces. The collection was luxurious and silky, with swathes of fabric beautifully draped around the body in deep blues, browns and pinks; there was fur and a glamorous sheen and a new longer hemline. Lots of items in this collection could be worn dressed up or dressed down, which is something she is excels at. All the models with their crazy curls looked so comfortable and sexy in the clothes and it was definitely one of those collections you could visualise yourself in this autumn.