All from Next
I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with London Fashion Week. Mostly, I love it. I love seeing next season's trends in the flesh, I love the supercharged creative atmosphere, I love meeting up with people that I often only get to see twice a year during fashion week. But I really hate having to be prepared for six different weather possibilities (I'm not known for weather-appropriate dressing, as I've mentioned before), I hate having to spend five days hopping on and off public transport, and I kind of hate getting dressed up for it.
I know, I know. It's REALLY STUPID. Of all the times of the year that one could possibly take pleasure in being a peacock, it should be LFW.
But the London Fashion Weeks represent the two busiest working weeks of the year for me, and when I'm running around town like a loony trying to get between shows I really don't need to be worrying about breaking my ankle in heels (the cobbles at Somerset House are LETHAL), or getting my beautiful cream matelassé Alexander McQueen skirt dirty by sitting down on the bus, or spilling my eighty-fifth coffee of the day down my Burberry trench (hashtag first world problems).
The other problem is that I really don't like having my picture taken, as you can probably tell by the fact that I don't upload photos of myself in my Today I'm Wearing posts. (This despite the fact that my mother is a professional photographer. I can tell you, though, that we're working on my lens phobia and there may be outfit posts featuring my-actual-self in the near future. No promises, though ...) I caused some hilarity amongst my queue buddies at last LFW by trying to hide in amongst them when someone pointed out that Scott Schuman was pointing a camera at me, when I should have been immensely flattered (sorry Scott – it's not you, it's me).
ANYWAY. What this all boils down to is that for LFW I try to put together outfits that look good but don't make me stick out like a sore thumb and that I can (hopefully) last the whole day in. This season I am anticipating wearing variations on the above – I'm having a bit of a pencil skirt love-in at the moment. And whilst high-heeled sandals might not seem like the best idea in the middle of February in London, it's actually a super-clever trick*: if my feet freeze, the heels can't hurt them! Genius.
(*Just kidding. Don't try this at home)