I like going to the Debenham’s press day, it’s quite impressive as it was in a big marquee right in central London. They show womenswear, lingerie, accessories and homeware. I usually like how it’s merchandised and the how each section is theme based.

I met Eric Van Peterson a few years ago, on a shoot. He was so kind and gentle. He’s originally from the States and after backpacking through Europe he moved to London where he met his wife Lyn at the original Hard Rock Cafe. He had a stall in Camden selling “objets d’art” and jewellery and later open a shop near Sloane Square. In 1981 he and his wife opened their Walton Street store and started creating their own jewellery designs. Their jewellery is very distinct so it’s not surprising that they have a large celebrity following including Cher, David Bowie, Goldie Hawn, Yasmin Le Bon, Michael Douglas and Ringo Starr.

Theo Fennell, Erikson Beamon & Eric Van Peterson all have collection for Debenhams.

This is titled New Goth.

I think we tend to forget or ignore how important department stores are in the fashion retail world. If you live outside a major city a department store can offer you the latest trends and since most of them have a concessions shops you have access to numerous designers and high street looks.

FYI:Debenhams has a total of 135 department stores in the UK and Republic of Ireland and 10 Desire by Debenhams stores, which are a new small store concept featuring a mix of womenswear, accessories, lingerie, cosmetics and childrenswear. Debenhams has a further 40 international franchise stores in 16 countries.

Designers at Debenhams include: Matthew Williamson, Betty Jackson, John Rocha, Jasper Conran, Julian MacDonald, Ben Di Lisi, Antoini & Alison and French Frost.

I’m very excited that I’ve been invited to give a lecture at the Barbican as part of The House of Victor & Rolf events! The lecture will be on July 24th about personal style. I’m also looking forward to seeing the exhibition as I saw a Victor & Rolf exhibition in 2003 at the Musée de la Mode et du Textile in Paris. The Barbican is the first museum to secure a Victor & Rolf exhibition in the UK! They will be showing the designer’s signature pieces from 1992 to the present in a specially commissioned and characteristically theatrical installation that will dominates the entire gallery. I love that in London we have so many opportunities to see so many important and influential artists’ work. The House of Viktor & Rolf will be at the Barbican 18 June 2008 - 21 September 2008.

It was great to run into one of my favourite Hannah’s - Hannah Almassi from Grazia!

A press day is when a PR presents the new collection to editors and stylists. Most PRs carry more than one brand and some brands are done in house. During the press day you can create a list of the clothes you’d like to feature in your up coming shoots for the next season. Everything we are looking at is autumn/winter 08. This might be the only time the pr has the whole collection in their showroom, as the clothes will always be coming and going to different shoots. For the higher end brands usually there are no duplicates so the one collection is shipped all over the world and used by all the magazines worldwide etc. Some brand have a press office in Europe and North American, they might even have variations in the collection to suit the different markets.

It’s the prs job to get the garment as much press as possible - but not just any press. I don’t really believe that all press is good press. Every brand has a list of preferred magazines & types of celebrities that it wants to be associated with, but of course many brands/prs can be very accommodating.

At these events there is always lots of chocolates and delicious things to nibble on! I may have had one to many flake bars…

Funkduplondon.com is about all things cool: they interview all different kinds of people like Jodie Harsh, Louis Mariette and even me!

I was recently interviewed by Harriet Reuter Hapgood about trends for 2008 for today’s Independent on Sunday! Whenever I’m asked about trends I always end up thinking not just about recent trends, but trends over the past few years, what they mean, their influences, their impact, and really everything that gives them a context: news, political events, etc. They all have a huge influence on fashion, and vice versa!

Several people were also interviewed for the article, including Sarah Leon of Select Model Management, Alison Loehnis of Net-a-Porter and Bev Malik of Browns fashion and Jaana Jatyri of the trendstop.com, Paula Karaiskos of Storm model agency- it’s cool to be in such good company!

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UPDATE: You can now see the full story online Who will be the hot names in fashion in 2008?

Today (Dec 21) is the final day for the Chris Moore exhibition at the London College of Fashion. I went yesterday, and it’s worth seeing, if only because there is no other catwalk photographer as famous, or as worthy of his own exhibition!

We don’t start a fashion show if the photographers haven’t arrived. There’d be no point. Yes, a picture really is worth a thousand words, and sometimes the photographers are all but forgotten - we never really think that the show is for them, it’s all about the front row, the editors, the celebrities (and the buyers!) but there they are, all squished together at the end of the catwalk, jockeying for the best position while holding heavy equipment. It doesn’t matter if the lighting isn’t optimal or the model forgets to pose at the end of the runway - it’s the photographers’ goal to capture every look. If you don’t have a good photographer shooting your show it’s almost not worth doing.

Amazingly, Chris Moore has been shooting catwalk shows for over 35 years. He shoots everything from Paris couture shows to new designers at Vauxhall Fashion Scout. If you haven’t seen this exhibition, the next time you look at a catwalk image check the credits - it’s probably one of Chris Moore’s!

I never go to a show without taking a picture of the photographers, it’s actually one of my favourite parts of the show!

Today I’m doing an online chat for Koodos.com. It’s the busiest online shopping day of the year and I’m going to give advice to any confused shoppers!

Link: Victim R-T-W fashion show photos | Vogue.

VICTIM SPRING/SUMMER 2008 LONDON see the collection on Vogue. I’ve added a few behind the scene shots that I took. I always think that I’ll take more shots but we were so busy on the day that you just don’t have time. My dressers were really on top of everything and as you can see the hair and make-up was just perfect!

Sometimes you actually get your dream! I’ve always loved Victim so I was so happy that I got to style the show!

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