London Fashion Week: Jonathan Saunders

I’m not quite sure how it is already that time again, but Fashion Month is just around the corner. And looking through the schedule for London Fashion Week, I’m positively tingling with the excitment at seeing what my favourite British designers will be showing this season. Because I can’t exist solely in a fashion bubble (I do have the rather serious day job which makes it tricky to disappear for an entire week), I’ll only be attending my favourite shows this time, but one I simply won’t miss is Jonathan Saunders.

Jonathan really is one of the brightest stars on the British design scene at the moment, and I’m not alone in thinking that; the entire fashion press seem to be having a love affair with his style. I’ve been fortunate enough to see his last three shows in person, and each time his remarkable talent for print and grown-up sexiness is akin to breath of fresh air. I’m yet to own a piece of his, but I’m dreaming about having one of those utterly gorgeous floral print dresses (and the custom Christian Louboutin heels to match) in my wardrobe. Win a trip to London Fashion Week + VIP tickets to Jonathan Saunders’ show with Motilo!

Because of my love for Jonathan Saunders, I wanted to share this special competition with you all: my friends at Motilo are giving away a VIP trip for two to London Fashion Week (1st prize includes travel, accommodation, tickets to Jonathan Saunders’ show for you and a friend and £1000 to spend, and there are six runner-up prizes of 1 x £500 and 5 x £100). And if you’re not one of the lucky winners, you can still watch the live stream of Jonathan Saunders’ show on the day. Find all the details and enter here. Good luck!Images: Jonathan Saunders Spring/Summer ’12 (top), Autumn/Winter ’12 (middle), Autumn/Winter ’11 (bottom). All photos taken by me at London Fashion Week.

Love, Miss B xx

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London Fashion Week: Day 2

Jonathan Saunders’ pastel Stepford Wives; pretty flippy party dresses at Emilio de la Morena (as Olivia Palermo and Julia Restoin-Roitfeld look on)

After the relative calm of Day 1, Day 2 began with a bang (to be precise, an explosion of sequins) in the form of Ashish’s flower girls. After that, we all squeezed into Julien Macdonald’s tiny salon show on Portland Place (which, as a sumptuous added dimension, had been scented with grapefruit candles), to Jasper Conran (all chic coral separates) and to Emilio de la Morena (where I had to resist the urge to go bouncing up to Olivia Palermo who was sitting beside me at the pre-show reception).

There was no such thing as ‘time for lunch’, so off we raced to Jaeger, House of Holland’s riot of candy pastels (where we got a sneak peak backstage before the show), to John Rocha and to Vivienne Westwood, who this season held the show in the Smithfield Market (I loved that the sounds of market stalls and the smell of fish could literally be smelt on either side of the runway – it made the whole experience feel so very authentically ‘London’). Jonathan Saunders’ pastel prints were the perfect follow-up to his flawless show last season (so much so that they deserve their own post at a later date), while Issa showed a carnival of girls from Ipanema.

Dame Vivienne Westwood skips down the runway with her girls for the finale; embellished silk mesh body-stocking dresses at Julien Macdonald; sequinned flower girls at Ashish.

I can’t wait to show you days 2 and 3 – my favourite days of the whole week.

Love, Miss B xx

London Fashion Week: Highlights From Day 2

Jackie J.S. Lee’s softly beautiful salon show

…And once again I find myself beginning a post with an apology for the tardiness (after all, Day 2 was now a full 5 days ago). The truth is, between 100+ shows, presentations and events, I thought it best to mull over each one before pronouncing which were my favourites.

Compared to the madness of Days 3-5, Day 2 was still a state of relative calm. Amidst a slew of shows (not naming any names) that had me tiring of the same aesthetic that seems to keep floating about at London Fashion Week - that hard, edgy look that no longer seems creative, and it neither flattering, nor what women crave to wear in the morning – there were some particular highlights that had me craving a new aesthetic of my own.

Jackie J.S. Lee’s tiny salon show was neither flashy nor obvious, yet it is still lingering at the back of my mind as one of the most beautifully crafted collections of the week. The supreme beauty of her calm, controlled mastery of both knitwear and leather (in shades of dove grey and soft caramel) seemed to confirm my own recent cravings for a slightly crisper, cleaner silhouetter. Similarly, Jonathan Saunder’s fantastical show (in the most dramatic location) confirmed why he’s the master of clever cuts and colour blocking – every editor we met following the show agreed it was one of the standout shows of the week.

Appropriately for the drizzly London morning we awoke to, Charles Anastase began the day with an homage to Paris in the rain. Set to the sounds of a thunderstorm and Scott Walker’s ’It’s Raining Today’, his usual Parisian intellectual lolitas strolled out in a palette of muted blush knits and charcoal chiffon with a halo of frizzy rain-hair.

Jaeger confirmed mustard and tweedy tailoring as one of the dominant trends of the week. I was particularly fond of these mustard silk pants – to be worn with platform ankle boots on a dreary day. (You can also spot Scott Schumman and Garance in the background – it seemed that every where I went, they appeared beside me!)

We managed to steal 45 minutes to dash to Wahacca – the best Mexican in London - for a proper lunch (a Fashion Week miracle!) before Issa’s disco extravaganza, which had us all bopping in our seats.

It’s always enormously fun to be invited backstage before a show. Here, we got a sneak peek at the blingtastic nanna-chic look before the House of Holland show

I’m not sure whether it was the location (a vast hall in a disused train station, filled with great oversized lanterns which glowed like a sea of moons against the silver floors), or the garments which seemed to usher in a completley fresh aesthetic, but Jonathan Saunder’s show was one I will never forget.

So tell me lovelies, do you have any favourite moments that you’ve seen of Fashion Week so far?

Love, Miss B xx

P.S. Day 3 highlights to follow tomorrow