At the first show of London Fashion Week, which is always Paul Costello. It is customary for the chairman of the British Fashion Council to make a speech and declare Fashion Week open. And so, on Friday morning, we sat in our seats and waited for Harold Tillman to take his position on the catwalk, to thank all the usual people, sponsors and such. But instead he confirmed...

“Come fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly away” this was the Eley Kishimoto theme. After handing over my invite which looked like a boarding pass, I was swept to my seat all to the sound of airport lounge chatter which came over the speakers. The show then began, and an air stewardess inspired collection strutted down the runway.

This was a shockingly good show. Nicole Farhi is one of those designers who is famous for being classic. She can be relied on for the fail safe fashion, constantly churning out the same cuts, fabrics and colours. But for Autumn/Winter 09 it would seem the French-born designer has had something of an epiphany. The photographs in all fairness do not do the collection justice....

On Saturday morning I enjoyed a champagne breakfast. Well, actually I lie, I was crammed into a champagne bar early in the morning clutching orange juice (as there were no croissants thanks to the credit crunch to soak up champagne). But it was all for a good cause, it was in honour of the British Council Young Fashion Entrepreneur award. There were two awards being...

This show followed straight on from Peter Jensen, so if I was gushing a little too much in my Jensen review it was because this was in contrast horrific. The theme for this collection is: “Ann-Sofie Back burns in hell.” Now I’m not being funny, but if you choose this as a theme, you need to make sure your collection is so good that it doesn’t actually create...

Peter Jensen is the king of kooky style. There is always a grown up cutesy feel but without being sickly. This was a very unusual collection and felt slightly more spring/summer than autumn/winter. The theme was ladylike folk. A mixture of textures including crochet and knits were set against ladylike structures and knitted hats. There was a sense of optimism throughout...

This was a surprisingly strange show. There are designers you rely on for beautiful simplicity, like Betty Jackson and Paul Smith, John Rocha is one of these. But this Autumn/Winter 09, he was clearly feeling creative. But did this creativity pay off? I’m not so sure. If I were to describe the look of the show I would say it was Princess Elizabeth I sent to the future....

What do you get if you cross gypsy style, with Indian beading and a tassel salesman? Jenny Packham’s Autumn/Winter 09 collection. It was the strangest show. Jenny Packham is loved by celebs and she does make fabulous eveningwear, but as a collection this was confusing and yawn worthy. It was a strange combination of colours and choice of styles. The highlights were,...

So what do you do, when you’ve put your best clothes on, your wearing staggering high heels, you’ve got your ticket in hand and then you have a door slammed in your face? This was my Charles Anastase experience today. After queuing for a while and having run from John Rocha, I was all ready with my ticket to get into the show. And after much waiting, and complaining...

Arriving in a Leicester Square full of confused tourists, I rounded a corner to discover a massive queue waiting to get into the show. Ashish was the hottest ticket of the day and was the first event to really generate a sense of excitement from the LFW crowd. The Hippodrome is a massive venue, but it was packed. Ashish chose a circus theme for his AW09 show and a trapeze...