London Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2017
I've covered London Fashion Week before but this year I had the luxury of being able to avoid the breakneck schedule of chasing the runway shows and instead look for the "bigger picture".
Dividing my time into themes, I started with a day on the streets outside a few of the venues, among the bloggers, guests and bemused members of the public. Beginning my coverage outside was a good way to remind myself of the clammer and chaos that follows the fashion season as it moves around the world. Any car, particularly with blacked-out windows, that pulls up outside a venue triggers a flurry of activity as photographers, bloggers and fashion-curious types swarm in to see who's arriving. The important people walk straight in without stopping. The semi-important will stop for a quick picture. The slightly more desperate take forty minutes to walk the ten metres into the venue as they pose up, take selfies and generally "live-stream" the whole car-to-door experience for their tens of followers.
The area was even busier than normal due to the presence of competitors and film crews from the "Master of Photography" programme, as they carried out a task for the next season of the show.
As I am a sizeable distance away from ever being accused of being fashionable, the environment is decidedly alien but the occasional pearl appears among the throng, such as the ultra stylish lady in the traditional men's suit, or the woman who appeared to want to fly everywhere to show off the flow of her dress.
Next up, I headed to the beating heart of LFW; backstage. I never seem to learn the lessons of working in such close quarters. First up, travel light. Invariably, I'm laden with a motorbike jacket, a backpack and various other odds and ends so, within minutes, the beautiful creatures in their shiny creations are having to work with a sweating mass of photographer, squeezing between the make-up tables. Secondly, bring your own light. It's invariably pretty dark, so the photographers that work backstage all of the time carry ring-flashes, soft-boxes, LED light bars and often a second person to hold all of that while they work. Flying solo, it was a case of finding the light, pushing the ISO and seeing what I could do.
The models are invariably in their own soundproof world as they listen to music on their phones or happy to wink, pout, smile or smoulder for the long procession of photographers looking to get something a bit different. It can't be much fun to go through all of that for the fifth or sixth time that day, all while having your hair tugged and your eyelids painted.
During the day, the biggest buzz I witnessed came when Winnie Harlow appeared, ahead of her appearance in Julien Macdonald's off-piste presentation. She was quickly given a corner of the room and her make-up team got to work as star-struck fashionistas grabbed phone pictures and posed for long-distance selfies.
Finally, I ventured "front of house". Space at the end of the runway is some premium real estate and knowing that I wasn't needing the "straight down the barrel" photos of the show, I could move off to either side and generally explore as the presentations took place.
When I worked for The Times many moons ago, covering fashion week was a constant battle between the fashion editors and the picture desk as one side decried my failure at being able to get straight up-and-down images of every outfit, while the other criticised my lack of creativity and inability to move from that coveted central spot. Basically, I couldn't win. With that in mind, it was such a pleasure to know what my brief was, and to leave the fashion itself to the many Getty photographers and contributors who have far more skill at all that "Heavy-Duty Beauty Duty" ™.
As London Fashion Week came to a close, the beautiful people headed off to their next fashionable port of call and I packed my bags for the Copeland by-election. No-one can ever say this job is predictable.
