London Fashion Week - the story so far . . .

Fashionista was thrilled to receive an invitation to see some of the most awe-inspiring and original catwalk shows at London Fashion Week this week. Donning her Jimmy Choos she hotfooted it to see Louise Gray, Mary Katrantzou and Holly Fulton's Spring/Summer 2011 collections hit the runway and came out positively drooling.

The gorgeous patchwork dresses and bottle top decorated skirts from Louise Gray definitely left Fashionista wanting to "Get Some Stuff" (the name of Louise's show) and Mary Katrantzou blew everyone away in the fabulous venue at the Old Eurostar terminal with her amazing digital print dresses and "lampshade" skirts which were so beautiful Fashionista didn't know whether she should wear them or frame them - although Fashionista has of course opted to do the former!

It was then on to Holly Fulton's show where Fashionista was transported to St. Tropez with the glitterati. Holly's collection invoked thoughts of the sun, sand and of course cocktail hour. Gorgeous wide legged trousers and bold prints were the highlights along with the highly covetable necklaces which Fashionista is already saving up for.

Fashionista is happy to confirm that she is not discriminating and will be checking out what the boys are up to at the Tim Soar and James Long shows tomorrow. It's a hard life!

Emerging design talent at LFW

Fashionista is delighted to learn that top city law firm Olswang is providing much needed legal support to some of London’s best new fashion designers as part of its recent cooperation with the Centre for Fashion Enterprise (CFE), the pioneering business development platform that nurtures emerging fashion design talent. CFE boasts an impressive past roster of high profile names, including Erdem, Peter Pilotto, Richard Nicoll and Marios Schwab, and Olswang is now advising the latest designers on the CFE’s two-year Venture programme as they develop their labels on the international fashion stage.

Designer labels currently on the CFE’s two-year Venture programme include Meadham Kirchhoff, Christopher Raeburn, James Long, Louise Gray, Mary Katrantzou and Tim Soar; all of whom will be presenting their Spring 11 collections at London Fashion Week, having already received international acclaim from fashion buyers and editors alike. Mary Katrantzou and Meadham Kirchoff were recently announced as nominees for this year's British Fashion Awards in the category for "Emerging Talent Award - Ready to Wear".

The CFE's Venture programme was devised to support the growth of designer labels which have already secured an impressive list of stockists, and have created a buzz in the press. The programme encompasses the vital aspects involved in developing a fashion label as a business, and provides mentoring and high growth coaching from experienced industry specialists. In addition, the CFE’s one-season Pioneer programme offers an analytical business review to less mature fashion labels, enabling them to devise a longer term business strategy. Through Olswang's involvement in the scheme, designers benefit from free legal advice on commercial contracts, tax and copyright issues, and attend workshops on IP. As well as working with designers on the Venture and Pioneer schemes, Olswang maintains relationships with the designers post-CFE, including Hannah Marshall whose two year term ended in July. It is good to know that London's emerging design talent is in such capable hands!

It's Shoemania!

For those who missed Channel 4 News last night, Fashionista was very interested to hear that she was not alone in having a shoe addiction. The C4 report referred to data from Bain and Company which showed that in 2009 the overall luxury market shrank by 8 per cent, but that sales of luxury shoes only fell by 0.5 %. In addition, for this year, Bain predicts that luxury shoe sales will bounce back by around 5 %, above other categories of goods in the luxury market.  There could be a number of reasons for this: many women prefer to invest in shoes since, although your weight may fluctuate over the seasons, your shoe size is fairly reliable to remain the same. Also, since most women can't afford to dress themselves head to toe in a their favourite label, by teaming a pair of designer heels with a high street dress, they can achieve the glamorous look for less.

The resilient nature of shoes sale perhaps explains the rationale for Selfridges' decision to expand their shoe department, due to open on 16 September. The new retail space covers 35,000 square foot and will display 4,000 shoes from over 150 brands. A dangerous prospect for the Imelda Marcos inside all of us!