London Fashion Love Letters: Spijkers en Spijkers

Hi Perm (again)!

I know I wasn’t supposed to tell you this just yet, but I really need to boast about my celeb spotting, so here we go:

After visiting Somerset House for Craig Lawrence’s exhibition, I headed down to Victoria’s House. I do have to apologize for mocking your orienteering skills earlier, as mine told me to walk pass my destination without even noticing. After asking for directions and walking back to where I was supposed to be, I finally ended up queuing to get into the Spijkers en Spijkers show. This time I was lucky, as my invitation had a red dot on it - those red dots make you rise a little higher on the fashion rank and get inside sooner than the rest. It might not be like being a VIP, but still...there's something about the red dots!

For the new Spijkers en Spijkers collection, the designer twin sisters Truus and Riet had found inspiration in the gloomy story of Elisa Day. She's a girl whose lover is so entranced by her beauty that he decides to kill her in order to preserve her image. He takes Elisa to a place where wild roses grow and ruthlessly takes her life after kissing her goodbye.

The collection was a blend of the innocence and darkness of the story: floral fabrics took us back to the flower fields, lace brought in the lightness of air while dark colours and geometric shapes contradicted that purity. Did I like the collection? Lets say that I might have to fight the urge to get part of it into my own wardrobe.

While happily snapping pictures of the outfits, I noticed that in the background of the photos there seemed to be a familiar face. A face that I had seen on a screen before, a TV screen that is. Even though the lips did look smaller, it could not have been anyone else than Janice Dickinson herself, sitting there about 3 meters away from me! Hurraying myself for recognizing someone famous, I tried to take a picture of her in the most casual manner possible. Of course my attempt to capture her face failed miserably, but at least the photo gives you some waterproof evidence!

Maybe you'll run into her tomorrow? If you will, then say hi from me - she might know me as The Stalker.

Emmi

London Fashion Love Letters: Craig Lawrence

Hi Perm,

I quite like the pieces of Jayne Pierson, especially the colourful ones: they look almost as if they were drawn. Looks like you´ve gotten to see quite a variety of different styles! I´m afraid I haven´t - I´ve been haunted by mermaids!

This morning, I successfully managed to find my way to the showroom of Craig Lawrence (without a map - yes, I had to mention that just to give your the ego of your inner compass another hit). Once I got there, a lady at the door handed me a press release. "Ooh, this is handy," I thought and started to read:

"Craig Lawrence´s Spring/Summer 2011 line marks his 4th consecutive season as a British Fashion Council NEWGEN winner. This season´s collection promises to be more dramatic and visionary than ever. Craig leaves the seaside towns of where he grew up in Ipswich, and moves into the fantasy world of mermaids and the seductive mythological sirens of ancient Greece..."

The words "siren mermaids" made my mermaid sirens ring, but I bravely stepped into the room to see not one, but FOUR of these fashion creatures from the underwater kingdom. These mermaids didn't have scales, but wore impressive nets of knits made of Japanese metallic yarns. The combinations of textures, silhouettes and colour breathed serenity that turned off my mermaid alarm. Yes, the sirens of Craig Lawrence were seductive and I fell for them like a good ol' sailor.

Having spotted a visitor who was undoubtedly dressed according to the theme (maybe she mixed Fashion Weeks up with Halloween?), I simply had to take a picture.

I also managed to snap a photo of The Great Designer Himself being interviewed. I might not have a clue where Ipswich is, but at least I can show you that this is how an ipswicher looks like:

I also attended two runway shows today, discovered the muffins at the press lounge and saw someone Famous with a capital F. I'll be annoying and will not reveal who it was, will tell you more about it later! Until then: good night!

Emmi