I am breathing a sigh of relief, as the last few days saw the end of couture week. Phew, it's felt like fashion week for ages this summer. The girls in the office are sniffling and sneezing, the weather can't make its mind up, and I'm looking at new collections again. September, oui? Non. It's July, although you wouldn't believe it. I'm hoping the dastardly fashion week 'plague' isn't back for round two, after several high end editors caught it last season. Quelle horreur.
Fashion Week is no longer bi-annual; more like Fashion Year. More designers are producing Resort collections to sell, American Vogue will have a field day. London Men's Collections were squeezed in-between Resort season and the eagerly anticipated Couture week before swimwear, then Spring again. Phew.
It seems every few weeks we're tempted with something new and it's time to work out how we're going to pay for the next pair of 'it' shoes. So many shows, so many presentations, so many clothes. A hard life, eh? It makes me wonder what the meaning of fashion week is in 2012. It's all online, it is accessible to the nth degree (even style.com has an app now...) and supposedly anyone can create a mood board with a bit of online research.
For those in the show seats, it is a job that comes with migraines, blisters and repetitive strain injury as entry-level perks. I spend most of my time madly scribbling shorthand and photographically memorising looks before the next round of 'lets run for a cab and hope we get there in time'. All this whilst slurping vitamin water (absolutely ghastly and not recommended). Wild times.
LOVE Magazine's Alexander Fury's appearance on MyDaily's recent panel debate sparked my attention as he described the new era of fashion as providing 'your own edit'. Liberty London Girl Sasha Wilkins sat beside him and warmly recalled the days when you had to buy multiple publications to get a glimpse of the new collections. Call me old-fashioned (as you will), but I prefer this too. The internet has made fashion more accessible, hundreds of 'stylists' graduate from assorted London art colleges all providing their own interpretation of a trend. An edit is now less edit and more vision, encapsulated into a short feature.
No amount of high resolution images will ever replace the feeling of being at an actual show. It is not yet fashion year, but let's hold that thought and maybe there'll be four seasons of shows in a few years time.