London Fashion Week AW'11, Day Two

Having frozen my bottom off on Day One, I decided that Day Two required serious reinforcement, hence this get-up:

I accesorised my Aquascutum trench coat with Great-grandma Alice's mink stole and my Balenciaga sky-scrapers. Hidden underneath was my fuchsia pink Lanvin number...and under that, my very sexy Marks & Spencer thermal vest.

Anyway, let's get down to the shows - you probably wouldn't catch this lot in an M&S thermal vest (more fool them!):

BERNARD CHANDRAN

A colour explosion hit the catwalk at Bernard Chandran. Fuchsia, scarlet and tangerine dominated, lifting my rain drenched spirits. Tulip shape skirts, bright red sparkling lace and laser cut tops were the other highlights.

 Seems like more is more this season!

 Does Spider Man have a cape? Well he does now. 

 Clearly Spring/Summer's colour blocking isn't going anywhere. Hoorah!

A bright pink Maribou feather coat - yes please! What a fantastic statement piece.

The other thing I loved about this show was the fab make-up. Upper lip pink, lower lip orange. Genius! I shall be trying this out VERY soon!

BELLE SAUVAGE

Apart from the fact that we were all frozen in this venue (even the M&S vest wasn't powerful enough), the Old Sorting Office was a great setting for a fantastic show. Techno geometric fabrics were manipulated in to simple, yet very effective, dresses.

 Perhaps the rebel's answer to Ascot? I loved this start to the show - very dramatic.

Hope you can see this pic clearly - great form-hugging dresses that are sexy yet sophisticated.

And ladies - the shoes were AMAZING!  Vertiginous wedges complete with fur, spikes, chains and buckles. Once again, more is more.

JOHN ROCHA

Texture was the name of the game here. Twisted, knotted and plaited, the fabrics were manipulated within an inch of their life...in a good way. With a gothic air, as is usually the way with Rocha, the looks were pretty dramatic. I particularly liked the shimmering crochet and bright red numbers (red seems to make a lot of appearances - it's definitely my early bid for colour of the season).

Try untangling that one!

BRYCE AME

Dramarama today! Bryce Ame was making statements left, right and centre. Futuristic headgear and sculpture was punctuated by some quite wearable pieces actually. Probably not my own taste, but I could definitely see some of these pieces working well.

Dressing as a rhino is going to be huge come Autumn/Winter 2011. Seriously.

Which pop star will be first to bag this structural piece?

 

After a day of back-back shows, I squeezed in three parties - yes THREE. Not quite the old woman I thought I was! Olivia Rubin at Jalouse, Belle Sauvage at Sketch and then Piers Atkinson at Franny's. All good fun.

Right, the plan was to also catch up with Day Three, but my beau has just returned from a rather debauched stag weekend in Bratislava (his own), and is now a shadow of his former self. He needs some urgent TLC. More posts to follow once I have got him on the mend!

Good night!