Fashion week was great – we met lots of press and buyers and I talked myself hoarse – literally. It was also very strange; I hadn’t realised that the fashion council review everything about how things are displayed and so on, there’s supposed to be a concept behind everything that’s done, so was initially perplexed by the constant presence of an art director in the room!
It was a little cramped, apparently to give a boudoir feel (yes, it was boudoir themed, how did you guess), which made life a interesting at times. If I remotely had the patience and dexterity though, I would so be making our rails at trade shows looks as pretty as the ones here! The top two pictures show the rail of Cervin stockings from the side, and then our rail end on. We were back to back with Playful Promises, so the mannequin on the table and all the knickers are theirs – I think I might have to steal a set actually – and then our new longline knicker is on the mannequin on the floor with the hand painted stockings, and our new lingerie set for January on the rail above. As I am truly rubbish at taking pictures you can’t see any of the details on any of those things!
The second two pictures I just took for fun. It has to be said that men were a bit rare at fashion week, especially in the lingerie room for some reason . . . one of these guys is from Lascivious (lovely lovely things!), and the other from Ra Ra Room (whose samples we kept using for stress relief. Cheers, guys ). I think they were a bit bored! Happily the event was pretty much all this friendly, despite that there’s a slight tendency in the land of small brands to see everyone else as your competitor – a bit daft considering we all sell to totally different customer groups.
The zebra shoe boot was just to fabulously ridiculous for me not to want! There were some spectacularly stupid high heels on show, but these ones were just great, and turned out to be Topshop which was a relief for my budgetary tastes. Sadly I made up for this by falling in love with Very Expensive Hats – mainly ones by Stephen Jones. Sheer top hats people, its totally where its at next season. You know, with zebra boots. Um . . . possibly this is why I stick to lingerie.
Anyway, back to hats, our strangely futuristic and not at all boudoir-esque mannequins were bedecked by Piers Atkinson headpieces. On Monday, we had Lydia Darling (a performer and burlesque star) promoting the room, so the last two pics are of her dressed in our ivory Delacroix set, with a Fred and Ginger robe and a Piers Atkinson headpiece on. It was the most fantastically overdone thing ever, and I would totally wear it. That said, it also makes you too wide to walk through doorways anything other than side on. Perfect! When I have more money than sense that's what I will be going to nightclubs in.
So there you go – fashion week was fun, busy, and ridiculous. Pretty much as billed!
