LFW Correspondent – Nikki Graham Style Voyeur’s Newest Guest Blogger

It's a LFW Wrap!!

Another year, another London Fashion Week!

The bi-annual calendar-packed week has just passed – where designers, models, celebrities, fashionistas, and just about everyone else, descend upon London for a week of catwalks, presentations, trade shows, and parties. Following a fashion-packed week in New York City, the streets of London were taken over by the well-dressed, upper-class masses for the annual Autumn/Winter shows. A city renowned for its designers, including Vivienne Westwood, Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen (R.I.P), it seems that during Fashion Week, every Londoner makes that little bit of extra sartorial effort. This season was no different – both on and off the catwalks.

Some highlights of this year included:

Cara Delevingne back on her home turf, cementing her It-girl status and outshining her older model sister, Poppy Delevingne and pal Alexa Chung.

Courtesy of Mulberry's blog

The Fashion Scouts’ One to Watch is always fun, showcasing the bright young things this city has to offer.

Designer "Yeashin"

There seemed to be a large emphasis this year on London Fashion Week being somewhat more “commoner friendly”, and not just aimed at the haute-couture-wealthy types. The Topshop Show Space had many great desingers like Richard Nicoll, Peter Pilotto, Louise Gray, and Meadham Kirchhoff, and Rihanna launched her highly anticipated River Island campaign, which didn’t disappoint!

Cara walking for Peter Pilotto, Getty Images.

Peter Pilotto, Getty Images.

Rihanna unleashes her first River Island collection. Image courtesy of Vogue.co.uk

Rihanna for River Island, New Campaign featuring Aussie model Bambi Northwood-Blyth. Photographed by Mario Sorrenti.

House of Holland (where cassette tapes were sent as invites and the show location was aptly on the top of a Soho car park) made me once again feel like I was living in my fashion dream heyday of 1987.

Image comes from one of the best and funniest bloggers ever, Man Repeller

House of Holland, Getty Images

Pixie Geldof wearing House of Holland at the LFW show. Image from Vogue.co.uk

British hospitality was at it’s finest again this year. The oh-so-classy Claridge’s hosted the Mulberry show, where the hotel was covered with flowers, butterflies, and of course the fashionable elite.

Mulberry at Claridges

A model walks the Mulberry catwalk at Claridges with poodle, Max. Image from Vogue.co.uk

On Sunday afternoon the ballroom at The Dorchester hosted the beautiful Temperley London show, a perfect match of a truly British hotel and a top British designer.

Alice Eve, Olivia Palermo, Anouk Lepore and a model I can't remember the name of, it's on the tip of my tongue aahh! The girls are front row at Temperley London

Olivia Palermo doing a very good impression of a nice person haha. Front row at Temperley London

L- Temperley London R- Roksanda Ilincic

The May Fair Hotel was again the Official London Fashion Week Hotel, and made the guests happy with their bar menu of Designer Shoe Inspired Cocktails. Roksanda Ilincic brought hauntingly magical hues to the glamorous Savoy Hotel, where the lavish ballroom was converted with stark wooden boards.

Roksanda Ilincic, Image from Vogue.co.uk

Roksanda Ilincic, Image from Vogue.co.uk

OMG! Just goes to show...Originally I had this image file name as 'Julian Assange' and for the first time in 4.5 years of blogging I got a message from my back-end saying: Sorry, this file cannot upload for security reasons. How bizarre! I had to change it to "VW" and it worked instantly. Just goes to show what a statement it is of Vivienne Westwood wearing a t-shirt in support of the Australian Activist and Wikileaks Founder who is wanted on extradition orders by the US Government. I too am a huge supporter of J.A. Go VW and Rage against the machine mofos!!

Vivienne Westwood didn’t disappoint this season with her usual outspoken and outlandish eccentricities. Wearing a t-shirt in support of Australian Activist and Wikileaks Founder, Jullian Assange, she made headlines for criticising Kate Middleton for owning too many clothes, saying she should wear the same clothes over and over again as it is “very good for the environment and would send a nice message.” It is strange that the Queen of Fashion and future Queen of England are in a satorial battle – as to my (SV’s) knowledge, Kate Middleton is one of the first women of her stature to ever repeat outfits in the way she does and as often so, even shareing clothing with her mother!! Since becoming engaged to William, Catherine has been applauded for her constant recycling of clothing, so I am rather confused as to why environmental campaigner and fashion designer extraordinaire, Dame Vivienne is up in arms about the Duchess of Cambridge – she should be the last person to target! However it is all over the news in England at the moment and if you would like to read more…..CLICK HERE……AND HERE!

Incredible make-up by MAC at Vivienne Westwood

How HOT is this model and look from Vivienne Westwood Red Label AW 13/14 ? Photo from backstage by: Lindsay Watson.

Make-up by MAC. Backstage shot above by: Lindsay Watson. Below from VW's FB page.

“The fight is no longer between the classes or between rich and poor but between the idiots and the eco-conscious.” Says Vivienne Westwood on Climate Change.

Vivienne Westwood Red Label AW 13/14

Insane Love! Vivienne Westwood Red Label AW 13/14

Even if Westwood is slightly mis-guided on her opinion of Kate Middleton, she is campaigning for all the right reasons. To send a message to the world to help reverse the effects of Climate Change and as one of the first high profile people to stand up tall and fight for this matter, if we didn’t know it already – she really is THE true trend setter of the fashion industry. Hopefully others follow suit. Not only is she the goddess of fashion, she is brave, she is clever and she is right!

London Correspondent - Nikki Graham, Style Voyeur Guest Blogger

The decision to have Guest Bloggers on board at Style Voyeur came to me when I realised that even working full-time on SV (which I am at the moment), some posts can take days or even weeks to prepare, so in order to post more regularly and keep my stories as large as they usually are (and maybe sleep once in a while too) – I thought collaborations were a good idea! It just so happened that two very clever girls contacted me just before fashion week hit their homelands (or shall I say fashion capitals of the world). Whitney Chalmers from New York City who covered a day at NYFW for me…see her Guest Post here...And now we have Nikki Graham of London, reporting on LFW. How lucky am I?!

When Nikki contacted me, I had just spent the night reading about the Picasso artwork that sold for $45,000,000 at a Sotheby’s auction and then almost instantly, here was Nikki emailing me saying she attended the event in person the night before! Within seconds of reading her credentials, she was in!

This post is thanks Nikki Graham, originally a Perth girl who has been living in Mayfair in London for 2 years working as a Hospitality Consultant & Recruiter. To name just a few of her high profile clients, Nikki represents the likes of The Dorchester, Savoy, Nobu and The Ritz. She loves going out to clubs such as Morton’s, The Arts Club and The Box Soho with her art critic and collector friends and is surrounded by so many people in the art world that a night at Sotheby’s or Christie’s is just another night in London for her – lucky thing! Welcome to SV guurrl!

20-02-2013

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