London\'s where it\'s at
Burberry,london fashion week,anna wintour,Top 10,spring summer 2010
london fashion week montage
Having spent the past few days in stylista nirvana - that is, at London Fashion Week - we\'ve finally caught our breath long enough to rest our sore feet, regroup, watch back all the videos we took on our dinky little Flip Video Mino HD Chrome cameras and pinpoint exactly what it was that made the spring/summer 2010 season one of the best in recent memory. It\'s been tough to whittle it down to just 10 reasons, but here they are. From the advent of Anna Wintour to the re-appearance of Brit brands Burberry, Matthew Williamson and Antonio Berardi on the catwalks to the very location in which we saw it all happen, Somerset House, get misty-eyed with us as we take you through the season\'s highlights.
Wintour cometh
Burberry,london fashion week,anna wintour,Top 10,spring summer 2010
anna wintour at meadham kirchhoff
Surest sign that you\'re on the right fashion track? A nod from formidable American Vogue editrix Anna Wintour. Which is exactly what LFW got this season, when Nuclear Wintour (plus entourage) blew into town in a blaze of immaculate highlights and Prada. Here to join the super-starry celebrations for London Fashion Week\'s 25th anniversary season, she wasted no time in checking out our hottest new talents, putting in a prompt 9am first day appearance at Meadham Kirchhoff, only to discover that literally everyone else was still at home, trying to shower off the stale Champagne smell lingering from the previous night\'s, ahem, labours. Ms Wintour, we salute you.
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Picture: Anna Wintour waiting patiently on the front row at Meadham Kirchhoff.
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What does Anna wear to the shows? Check out our latest Instant outfit
Getting to the point
Burberry,london fashion week,anna wintour,Top 10,spring summer 2010
detail at hannah marshall spring summer 2010
You know a trend has well and truly taken hold when it looks as though the collections on the runways and what the front row are wearing are trying to outdo each other. So it was this season with the humble spike. Never before have you seen so many charming, witty, well-educated, affable women looking like they could run you through should you throw as much as one wrong look in their direction. From Balmain-esque shoulders (yes, the £10,000+ price tag for the real deal makes even our eyes water), to handbags with rows of razor-sharp spikes along their bottoms (pity the poor fash packer who absentmindedly put hers on her lap), fierce scaled new heights this season. Watch your backs...
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Picture: Detail at Hannah Marshall, spring/summer 2010
Jourdan\'s bump
Burberry,london fashion week,anna wintour,jourdan dunn,Top 10,spring summer 2010
jourdan dunn at issa spring summer 2010
Jourdan Dunn would\'ve been forgiven for putting her feet up with a cup of tea and a packet of chocolate Hobnobs this week, considering she\'s seven-and-a-half months pregnant and all. But, super to the last, she instead pulled on her best expandable designer gladrags and whooped it up with the best of \'em on the coolest of front rows. While more than a few eyebrows were raised when the 19-year-old British Model Of The Year announced in July that she was expecting, the mutterers were firmly put in their place by a sterling week of appearances. Jourdan\'s understated-yet-infinitely flattering mum-to-be wardrobe was the talk of the shows, especially after Heidi Klum put it all out there at the Emmys.
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Picture: Jourdan Dunn at Issa, spring/summer 2010.
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Watch Jourdan\'s exclusive interview with Handbag.com, backstage at the Topshop Unique show
Model behaviour
Burberry,london fashion week,henry holland,anna wintour,Dree Hemingway,Top 10,spring summer 2010
dree hemingway with henry holland at house of holland
Aside from Agy making the obligatory appearance for BFF Henry Holland, the London catwalks are traditionally a bit lacklustre on the model wattage front compared to their peers. This season was Agy\'s first in \'retirement\', but we were instead treated to catwalk performances by a whole menagerie of the industry\'s prettiest peacocks in the shape of Coco Rocha, Chanel Iman, Lara Stone, Lily Donaldson, Freja Baha Erichsen and name-to-know-now Dree Hemingway - and not only at the shows that are usually staged outside of London. Surprise hit of the week? Russian up-and-comer Ranya Mordanova (she of the bowl cut and bleached eyebrows) rocked it at Paul Smith. Keep it coming, girls.
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Picture: Dree Hemingway with Henry Holland on the House of Holland spring/summer 2010 catwalk.
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You should know about... Dree Hemingway
All white on the night
Burberry,osman yousefzada,london fashion week,anna wintour,Top 10,spring summer 2010
sessilee lopez at osman spring summer 2010
Taking the baton from the white-saturated collections of New York (see Marc Jacobs, Preen, Donna Karan, Lacoste), the London catwalks were also a whiteout. White always lends itself happily to a spring/summer collection, but there was something bigger happening here: white, which is technically not even a colour, is so fabulously now that it has become the colour of the season. Osman Yousefzada took it to the extreme, showing no colour whatsoever but gold embellishment that added a Grecian flavour to an otherwise thoroughly modern collection. A nod to the austerity of recession? A blank canvas on to which we can project ourselves? Who cares, when it\'s this gorgeous?
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Picture: Sessilee Lopez at Osman, spring/summer 2010.
Our style saviours
Toni & Guy,Burberry,london fashion week,anna wintour,Top 10,spring summer 2010
toni and guy blow dry bar
It\'s Fashion Week. You\'ve overslept, left your make-up bag in your evening clutch and been caught in a downpour en route to the tent. Who you gonna call? Toni&Guy and MAC, of course. Both had helpfully set up shop inside the BFC tent at Somerset House to offer free cut-and-blow drys and makeovers respectively to frazzled fashionistas. Not only forward-thinking (and what the fashion pack have been crying out for for a long time), the operation was high tech, too. At Toni&Guy, for example, laptops replaced the usual dog-eared magazines as points of reference. It was simply a case of Google Imaging your perfect look, then sitting back while a stylist recreated it. For free. Genius.
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Picture: The Toni&Guy blow dry bar in the BFC tent.
Homeward bound
Victoria Beckham,Burberry,london fashion week,Agyness Deyn,anna wintour,Top 10,spring summer 2010
victoria beckham and agyness deyn at burberry prorsum
It\'s no secret that London produces the best designers in the world (Roberto Cavalli once said just that to us), and we\'re so pleased that so many of those who usually show elsewhere chose to come home to join in the anniversary celebrations. Matthew Williamson, Pringle of Scotland, Antonio Berardi, Jonathan Saunders and Marcus Constable made our week with their high-voltage offerings, but it was Burberry Prorsum - which not only had the honour of closing the shows but threw the must-attend party of the week afterwards, too - that pulled in the starriest set. With the likes of Victoria Beckham, Agyness Deyn, Gwyneth Paltrow, Emma Watson, Liv Tyler, MK Olsen, La Wintour, Carine Roitfeld and Freida Pinto gracing the front row, it required a lot more concentration than usual to stay focussed on the catwalk (though the beautiful knot detailing and ice-cream colour palette helped).
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Picture: Victoria Beckham and Agyness Deyn on the front row at Burberry Prorsum.
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See all the stars on the Burberry front row.
Watch our backstage Burberry video.
Perfect Matches
Matches,Burberry,london fashion week,anna wintour,Top 10,spring summer 2010
matches stand by gary card
Love-in of the Week Award has to go to Matches and LFW. You could barely move among the style throng without spotting its ubiquitous \'Matches 4 LFW\' logo somewhere in the crowd, stamped on the back of the T-shirts, bags and badges designed especially for the occasion by the likes of Charles Anastase, Preen, Louise Goldin, Erdem, Nathan Jenden, Hannah Marshall and Sykes. We were thrilled to be given a few of the designs in show goody bags but we certainly didn\'t begrudge paying up to bulk out our collections, since a portion of proceeds from sales will be donated to the BFC Princess of Wales charitable trust. And, after all, the on-site pop-up shop created by renowned set designer Gary Card was the place to see and be seen.
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Picture: The Matches stand designed by Gary Card.
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Buy your own T-shirt or bag designed by London\'s finest at Matches.
Riding off into the Somerset
Burberry,london fashion week,anna wintour,Top 10,spring summer 2010,somerset house
somerset house
As a rule nobody likes change, but LFW\'s new home at Somerset House gets an overwhelming thumbs up - an incredibly beautiful surrounding for incredibly beautiful people to see incredibly beautiful collections. OK, so the cobbles wreaked havoc on our stiletto-clad feet, but having the presentations on-site more than made up for that - as did being able to lunch outside by the river between shows. Our only nit is that there\'s no tube station on the doorstep like there was at the Natural History Museum. Any chance you can stretch your support for LFW to building us one in time for next season, Boris? Ta very much.
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Picture: Somerset House.
In the (hand)bag
Burberry,london fashion week,anna wintour,Top 10,spring summer 2010,christopher bailey
christopher bailey at the burberry prorsum after party
We try not to get star struck. We really do. But all the preening, queuing and jostling takes its toll and meeting Christopher Bailey - the man credited with Burberry\'s near-miraculous recovery and subsequent stratospheric rise - was one of the absolute highlights of our week. He is just so nice. Having apologised for keeping us waiting for our interview, he told us how much he likes handbag.com. Instantly smitten. Not that we can blame him, though - we\'ve got the most candid photos, backstage videos and upfront blogs you\'ll find from London Fashion Week online. What are you waiting for? Start clicking!
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Picture: Christopher Bailey at the Burberry Prorsum after party.
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Watch our backstage Burberry video.
