LFW: The Parties

It would appear that the parties of London Fashion Week amount to a bit of a mixed bag (Birkin obviously). I was invited to the Osman aftershow party in Luxx on New Burlington Street in Mayfair on Monday night. I had two tickets. I also managed to bag a super-scarce ELLE Style Awards afterparty ticket. Only one. This posed a problem. Memories of being the only English speaker at a party full of Parisians at my last magazine came back to haunt me - awkward hanging around the edges with a glass of champers didn't really do it for me. I checked around my fashion friends, Nope, not a single one was lucky enough to get an ELLE ticket.

After a long day of weighing up the options - honestly, this was the most important decision I've had to make in quite some time - my gorgeous plus one and I chose to give the ELLE party doormen a whirl. Now, she's a buyer and a very pretty girl to boot so I reckoned there was a chance she could work her magic on the doormen. Our taxi pulled up outside the Great Queen Street address where we were confronted by a queue of fashionistas tusseling for a space inside. We opted to save ourselves the embarrassment of a refusal and hop on over to Osman instead. Once inside, the mood was clear. It was populated by a gaggle of those edgy student types. The ones who look eternally awkward yet think they are teetering on the brink of fashion-fabulousness. All bizarre prints, funny little hats and deeply unflattering shoe choices. It was upsetting to say the least. Curiously, no one we spoke to had actually attended the show. How odd.

At least there was free alcohol. Or so we thought. Approaching the bar we ordered some glasses of white wine. Not possible. Rose? Champagne? Vodka Tonic? No no no. We only have beer. And they called it a fashion party. The "alternative" (read: achingly hip) band started up soon after. We left.

More on the glorious LFW party scene tomorrow...