Though London Fashion Week by now seems like a distant memory, some shows still happily haunt me at the most unexpected moments. But this is my measure of a good show – those that continue to happily linger in the mind, long after the lights and the whirlwind of Fashion Week have dimmed, are the ones that I know are either truly beautiful or truly wearable (or more pleasingly, both!). For me, Alice Temperley’s 10 year anniversary homecoming show (she had previously shown in New York for the past 6 years) was one of the magical moments of February’s Fashion Week.
The invitation called us to the British Museum late one night, hours after the tourists and schoolchildren had left the magnificent rooms of ancient treasures. Seeing the wonderful auditorium dimmed and bathed in such an eerie stillness before the show was a treat in itself (queue every child’s fantasy of being (willingly) trapped in a museum overnight). And despite extreme sleep-deprivation, Fashion Week exhaustion, and the grumpiness of having to wait nearly an hour for the delayed show to begin (much to the chagrin of the serious fashion editors), the entire audience couldn’t help but collectively smile when the first models walked out. For this was a show that conjured up fantasies of dancing at midnight balls in grand locales, of dashing to the opera on stormy wintery evenings, of dinner parties of wild proportions in English manor houses or 5th Avenue penthouses. And oh, how I long for that slick black tuxedo, those oyster silk chiffon dresses, and the incredible golden-heeled Charlotte Olympia booties which magically avoided even the most sequin-tastic dresses seeming too sacharine. I can only imagine that whoever is lucky enough to come to own one of these pieces will surely have the most wonderful times in them – for these are the sort of dresses which are just begging to be taken to a fantastical party.
Do you love this collection as much as I do? What would you wear to your fantasy midnight party?
Love, Miss B xx
It’s all lovely…but…
I LOVED Kate Moss’ Galliano dress she just wore to her wedding. Want it!
Oh my gosh, wasn’t it lovely? For all his public disgrace, in a way it was nice for Galliano to bow out on a final lovely note in the form of that dress.
B xx
Shame I missed that show, I think it was the late start at 8:30pm :S
Ooh was it only 8:30? God, it felt like midnight! (not that the 12-hour show days and extreme sleep deprivation helped…). But entirely forgivable – I missed the Giles show (sadly) and all the good parties for the same reason.
B xx
This sounds like an amazing experience… and such beautiful clothes. I have an ankle bootie addiction at the moment and your talk of them is fuelling the fire! Hope you’re having a lovely weekend Darling! xxx
Interesting post, what a glorious location!
Just for added interest, Alice Temperley collected her MBE the same day my Dad collected his OBE- her outfit was fantastic!
It’s going to be pretty hard to top that location next season, I’m sure! And how wonderful!
B xx
Ahhh it sounds wonderful!
I ordered the Alice Temperley scarf the other day, the one that she has designed in collaboration with Twinings, it looks so beautiful on site, hope it lives up to my expectations-I’m sure it will! XO
I think those gold ankle booties might just be my wedding shoes……
Now they would make the most fabulous wedding shoes ever!!!
B xx
Stunning. I love the long white dress shown in the photo with the tuxedo. Some of my favorite magical-midnight-party outfits are in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita–the scene at the castle outside Rome. There’s truly nothing more appropriate than a ball gown for late-night rendezvous to abandoned Italian villas!
Oh yes, how I love that scene! Would also love to have gone to Truman Capote’s Black & White Ball in NYC in the 60s (it was the party of the century, I’m sure)
B xx