A Fashion Night Out to bloody remember!

Friday, September 11, 2009

What a fabulous night! I really cannot tell you how much i enjoyed Vogue's Fashion Night Out in London, it was simply fabulous. 

It was amazing to see all types of women uniting, in this recession, joining together and having fun with fashion! Every store, on both Bond Street and Oxford Street had something to offer; whether that being discounted prices, Vogue stylists, flowing champagne and cocktails as well as many, many famous fashion industry insiders, models and celebrities browsing and giving advice!

 The night was one hell of a success and i'm here to share my night of events..

4.45 pm - Started at Oxford St. where we headed down the dark, sultry stair case to Selfridges very own ice cream bar produced by the company The Ice Creamists! Were given the best seats in the bar by a lovely waitress, which happened to be a very pink, fury ice cream van, very surreal! Which of course was decked out with plush leather sofas, hanging disco balls, driven by a rather creepy model of the Queen and our very own ice cream tune that the van played! Was served the lushest of all ice creams: the Obamarama (at the white house) ice cream. yummy! 




5.20 pm - Walking past Browns Fashion store heading to Bond Street, where i happened to bump in designer Henry Holland preparing for a night of serving customers and being a sales assistant at Browns!

Myself & Henry Holland

The Brown Team outside the store.

5.35 pm - Pop into Kurt Geiger, see the beautiful discounted heels for sale. Head off towards Bond Street, passing many long-legged models along the way.

Chanel getting ready for the event.

5.40 pm - Following the jazz music inside Ralph Lauren, we drank Peach bellinis and browsed around the new A/W collections and saw the top Vogue picks.

Real Models in the LV windows.

5.50 pm - Hit up Prada to check out the latest thigh high boots and fill in competitions to win a new studded Prada bag (fingers crossed),then on to Maxmara, Alexander McQueen, then more mingling and drinking berry flavored cocktails in Guess while looking at the latest hand bags on offer. Then off to Chanel, where we waited for the doors to open eagerly. Once in, we drank on yet more champagne and lusted after the array of Chanel bags, heels and fine jewelry. Too early for the fashion shoot, we did have a good peer at many women being made up in the latest Chanel make up collection. 

6.40 pm - With no time to waste, we hurried off to Burberry where the drama was! With an invite only into the British label's main store on Bond Street, it played host to the fashion royalty and celebs.

Surrounded by paparazzi, we saw Sarah Brown, Sadie Frost, Sienna Miller, Daisy Lowe, Alice Dellal and Pixie Geldof (no surprise there!) all race off into waiting blacked out cars. Laura Bailey, Natalia Vodianova, Jourdun Dunn and Lara Stone were a few of models at the star studded bash co-hosted by Creative Director at Burberry, Christopher Bailey. Saw Alexandra Shulman dash off into a waiting car to her next appearance, where i gave a sneaky but shy wave to receive a big smile back from the British Vogue editor! 

BUT. the main highlight to my night was a good chat with legendary photographer, Mario Testino! Testino has shot every one who is anyone. From the Royal family to Madonna, he transforms photography in no other way. He's shot covers and editorals for Vogue (French, American, English, German to name a few) Allure, GQ,  V Magazine, Vanity Fair, Burberry, Calvin Klein, D&G, Gucci, Micheal Kors, Valentino, Versace..  

Testino was such a lovely gentleman! He decided that we looked 'very cute!' and asked us about our career aspirations. On telling him that i attended LCC he commented that they didn't accept him, their loss i said, to which he replied 'darling, i don't think i have done badly!' 

Then telling him that i was interested to work in men's magazines he decided that i must, must, have David Gandy (the absolutely, delicious  model in the D&G advert) put on a front cover. David, (who i  told was stunning) thought this was very funny and joined in our conversation. Then a sudden wave of paparazzi made our way over, the very skinny Donna Air, (who was famous many, many decades ago.) Testino enquired to who this lady was and commenting how she is posing (badly) for the paps, on to how he would never photograph such a thing! (hah!) 

After posing for a picture and some more oogling at David, who joined Testino at the event, we said our goodbyes, when he made us promise that 'when you become editors, you must book me!' That is one promice i intend to keep to a very kind and talented man.

The paparazzi waiting outside the flagship Burberry store.

Christopher Bailer, Creative Director for Burberry, with Sarah Brown, Prime minister's wife.

Daisy Lowe and Alice Delal.

Christopher Bailey and Alexandra Shulman, British Editor of Vogue.

Erin O Conor and Sarah Brown.

Sarah Brown and Claudia Schiffer.

Natalia Vodianova.

Pixie Geldof (with very obvious platinum blonde extensions).

Sadie Frost and the other boring one from FrostFrench.

Lisa Snowden. (Can't remember why shes famous?)

Tess Daley

Alexandra Schulman making a dash for her waiting car.

Lara Stone, model.

Mitch Hewer from Skins, random much?

Mario Testino and David Gandy (nom nom.)

Daniella, Mario, myself and Elizabeth.

David Gandy, shot by Testino for D&G. See the television advert here: disgustinglygeorgous.

8.30 pm - Then we flew into Jimmy Choo, to be served very, very yummy martinis and purchase our Vogue tee-shirt. Whilst waiting for a friend to purchase hers, Daniella and i were greeted by Harriet Quick the fashion features editor at Vogue! What a charming lady! She was very interesting to talk to and was very pleased that we attended, she even gave us insider scoop that Lara Stone would be appearing on a future cover! After seeing many of the Vogue team flying around London, it was very interesting to talk to someone with the fashion industry who was so down to earth and lovely. Also bumped into a very pretty Tess Daley.


Back to Burberry to check out Men's shoes for a friend, while sipping on Mojitos and Vodkas and a bit more mingling! 

9.00 pm - Headed into Armani to have a nice pint (heh) and casually sit down to realise that within 10 minutes we were sitting front row at catwalk instore with atleast 200 people packed in! Watched the latest A/W collection - a right treat!

Taking a peak at the new Armani A/W collection. 


Modeling the 'Vogue' tee-shirt.

Check out the packed stairs!

9.45 pm - Finally headed back to Oxford Street, to hit up Topshop (where i tried on lots and lots of outfits - birthday outfit shopping!) and Gap where most of the events were winding down, quick bite to eat in Garfunkles. Then took the train and my tired feet home to bed, still unable to believe that nights crazy, fantastic events! 




Vogue's top picks at Topshop.

What an evening! It was truly amazing and very surreal. And the best thing about it was that every one who attended had a true passion for style and fashion and just had a great time. Roll on the next Vogue Event!