What: Qasimi after-party

Where: The Cuckoo Club

Why: Sadly I can’t tell you why you should have been at the Qasimi after-party because despite having an invitation, my friends and I were still denied entry. “The venue must have been packed you’re thinking. No, it was hardly even full. The reason we were given for being denied entry was because it was one entry per invitation. This was after 5 people had been allowed entry on one invitation, three people had been allowed entry on one invitation and after them two people had been allowed entry on one invitation. When it came to my friends and I, the rope was put back up and we were asked to wait.

After 10mins we were told firmly by the girl on the door (let’s call her “Girl on the door”, that’s her pictured above) that it was one invitation per person. When I asked why 5 people had just been let in on just one ticket she said, “they were part of the Royal opera….. at this point I interrupted and asked if it’d be o.k to get approval from at least one of the girls from the big group from Blow PR (they manage Qasimi’s pr) who had been let in while we had still been waiting, “Girl on the door” said this would be fine and let me in.

While I was inside, “Girl on the door” let in everyone behind us in the queue, that’s right…two people on one invitation were allowed entry. When my friend questioned the sudden rule change she quickly responded, “Look, I’m not discriminating here (o.k. let me add here that I am black and I came with three black friends and at this point none of us had brought up the issue of race, which begged us to question why she did).

Meanwhile, downstairs in the club I found a rep from Blow PR who was very kind and explained that Blow PR didn’t organise this party but I should take her card and give it to the girl on the door and explain that she said it would be fine for my friends to join the party. This however was not fine for “Girl on the door” who said she had to speak to the rep from Blow PR directly.

“But she gave me her card, surely this should help and you said if I got Blow PR’s approval it’d be o.k. I replied, shocked that she just wasn’t willing to help at all.

“No she said, “I didn’t say that and I need to speak to her directly.

At this point I was so mentally exhausted and I’d been downstairs and seen that the party was really not at all that great, that I decided it just wasn’t worth it.

It’s fashion week, I came to work and get content for the site, but it just wasn’t worth the stress. I rarely if ever put certain situations down to discrimination and there were a handful of black people in the club, but I’m curious as to why even though we were polite, waited patiently and we did everything she asked,

a) She changed the entry rules when it came to us
b) She changed the rules again for everyone behind us
c) She wasn’t even willing to accept the approval from Blow PR when I gave her the card or even go downstairs to speak to the rep from Blow PR.

A friend of mine, who was understandably distressed by the situation, took a picture of the front of the club for this post. This is “Girl on the door” with the Blow PR card in her hand.

When the camera came out the bouncer who had earlier assured “Girl on the door” that he wouldn’t let us in, cowardly ran into the club, leaving “Girl on the door”, to handle the situation. How did she deal with it? She said to my friend, “Get over it love, you’re not on the guest list!

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This London Fashion Week has been a strange one, nothing happening quite as you expect. Usually mundane designers are creating kooky collections, whilst the ‘ones to watch’ are falling flat on their faces. Then there was the whole Lily Cole supermodel army at an off schedule show (Qasimi), it has been very strange indeed.

But none weirder than my experience at Peter Jensen, there I sat staring at a man opposite me, thinking “I’m sure I know him. And of course I did, but I wasn’t certain and so omitted my celebrity spotting from my post on Jensen’s show. And after my colleagues making a mockery of me for daring to think that Kanye West was at Peter Jensen, I was even less sure. But the joke’s on them since it turned out I was right. Yes, Kanye has been popping up all over fashion week.

This is the most high profile celebrity to be seen all week (well actually at all in a very long time) and it is very exciting. My spies have been out and about, after he attended Peter Jensen and Ann Sofie Back, he was then at Vivienne Westwood. Then yesterday he turned up to Christopher Kane and Richard Nicoll. With further sightings expected at Julien MacDonald today.

He was apparently surrounded by fans and press at Christopher Kane, although at Jensen I can report he was left entirely alone. I’m pretty sure, like myself no one could believe that he was actually there. So, other well known stars, Victoria in particular, if you can be bothered to do New York you should be bothered to come to London. Come on bring some more press our way. Thank you Kanye for coming, it is much appreciated and let’s just hope he’ll set a trend and we’ll see a few more fabulous faces in the crowd, oh and reality TV stars, this does not mean you!

[Photo: Getty Images]

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Making their debut this time last year, Qasimi is the brainchild of the architecturally trained H.H. Khalid bin Sultan AlQasimi and Elliott J. Frieze. For AW09, the duo chose the magnificent architectural wonder of St. Mary’s Church to showcase their third collection.  Lit so that the stage appeared to be glowing, the building was the perfect setting for Qasimi’s Victorian Gothic glamour – imagine My Fair Lady in mourning and you’re halfway there.

The entirely black palette was lifted by light-reflecting silk, velvet, and lace and a stellar cast of Britain’s best modelling talent, including Jade Parfitt and a crowd-pleasing Yasmin LeBon.  Erin O’Connor started the proceedings in a spectacular inky black headdress and bustle gown, while an ageless Carmen Dell’Orifice ended the show on a high point in a similar Victorian period piece costume.  Lily Cole modelled a fabulously flirty and frilly take on the era in a corset mini dress, proving Victorian can be both powerful and sexy.

Despite these dark delights that peppered the illuminated Qasimi runway, I found it difficult to imagine anyone except Eliza Doolittle herself wearing them off the catwalk.  More plausible were the silk lapels on a smart le smoking tux and the cobweb sleeves that hung glittering from a simple column gown – items I can envisage wearing again and again.

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Military Britannia meets the Orient. Neat tailoring, slinky shirts and khaki colouring dominated the catwalk at Qasimi’s Spring Summer collection. Luxury silks, delicate colouring and waist high, form-fitting skirts had diminished the austere cut of trouser suits; replacing it with a far more enticing outlook on conservative dressing. Interspersed with the military parade came billowing ball gowns straight from an 1850′s Columbian tea party: just enough silks and flower motifs to ward off the cholera. Heavenly.

***UPDATE***: Thansk to Blow PR we received some amazing pics from the show which we’ve added to this post.

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