LFW virgin no more...

It was going to happen sooner or later, SS12 stole my LFW virginity.  I was pretty lucky and managed to blag my way into London Fashion Week, thanks to the girls at Push PR.  As a trainee fashion journalist, it's something of a fantasy to go to the shows and visit Somerset House, so I jumped at the chance.  University has started back up, and our first assignment was to get into LFW and then do some work based on it, I shan't bore you with that.  I knew first off that the love of my life, David Koma, AW11 collection was being exhibited at the Topshop Newgen 'shed', so I made a beeline for that once I saw it.  As well as schmoozing with bloggers, visiting the exhibitions and seeing shows, I was also spotting the 'Fash Pack'.  I spied Anna Dello Russo, Hilary Alexander, Zandra Rhodes, Jo Elvin, Brix Smith-Start and Lenny the Stylist Pug (a personal highlight, I'm now broody for a Pug).

On Monday, after watching the Burberry arrivals, I went down to see Jasper Garvida's SS12 show.  It was particularly monochrome, with a flash of disco ball glitz here and there.  

I haven't done any show blogs as I feel it's a tad overdone in the fashion bloggersphere and I don't want to regurgitate Style.com.  I will, however, at the end of the Fashion Week season do a summary of my favourite shows and what I'll be looking forward to wearing next season.  I can tell you my stand outs so far have been DVF (naturally), Ashish, Elie Tahari, David Koma (naturally) and Burberry.  

An evening with Zandra Rhodes

I was lucky enough to be able to go along to a guest lecture at my university today, given by none other than Zandra Rhodes.  

She was introduced to us as "instantly recognisable by her pink hair", which could only be pulled off by the chicest of gals.  Zandra told us that her hair was an expression of who she was creatively and said, "I did dye my hair brown once, it was bloody boring".  

The lecture took us through her career, the struggles and the breakthroughs.  Diana Vreeland helped her out by putting her designs in Vogue before creating costumes for popular operas, The Magical Flute and Aida. Zandra is highly influenced by different cultures shown through her Egyptian, Indian and African inspired collections.  

Whilst talking us through a slide show of her work, one slide made the whole room sigh.  Sarah Jessica Parker on set of Sex and the City wearing one of Zandra's designs.  Incase you were wondering, it was season 6, episode titled "Carrie and the Russian" (see below clip). 

With an incredible career behind her, Zandra has no intention of quitting now.  She's still designing for the operas that move all over America as well as enjoying watching her creations appear on the likes of Paris Hilton or the Olsen Twins. "I don't know these twin girls, but one of them always has something of mine on."