It must be tiring being Fashion – constantly being judged by eager customers and creative directors alike, being pulled off hangers and fastened on to mannequins, filling the countless pages of all our favourites glossys and dressing every single model in every single photoshoot and fashion week since the dawn of the seamstress.
So, every once in a while, Fashion needs to throw on some of it’s best work and have a night out. That’s (kind of) the premise of Vogue Fashion’s Night Out, which took place last Thursday night in cities around the world from Paris to New York. I ventured out into the retail districts of London to see just how Fashion was letting loose.
My first stop – the Cath Kidston store in Covent Garden to get myself a free manicure…
Tea-based cocktails were provided by The Lawn – not usually a tea-drinker but these were more than palatable, my favourite was their take on the Long Island Ice Tea
Celebrated the final product with a (very cautiously held) glass of Rose Garden Tea Syrup
While heading off to Oxford Street in search of some more fashion-related soirées, my friend Pauline and I bagged ourselves a goody bag from Office, simply by being at the right place at the right time – gotta love Fashion’s Night Out!
After going roughly halvsies on our winnings, I added some DHC Deep Cleansing Oil, a couple of Dermalogica skin care products and a ma-hoosive Remington hair brush to my list of freebies – not bad for a completely free event.
A somewhat unlikely top fashion hotspot of the night was Marks and Spencer, who put their AW12 limited collection on show
My favourite piece was this very enthusiastically-modelled biker jacket – a classic wardrobe staple.
Walking down Oxford Street, we didn’t have time to enter every single store, but the atmosphere on the street itself was definitely buzzing.
We stopped by Topshop to see what was occurring, though unfortunately Delilah’s hotly anticipated performance clashed with my manicure appointment. You can watch a snippet below, from the sounds of it I missed out on quite a set:
I did however see this über-cool DJ chick
H&M had a pretty cool cover-style photoshoot going on…
…as well as some manicures and tattoos
Bershka got in on the festivities, with 20% off everything and balloons!
I also grabbed myself a free Galaxy Ripple bar from New Look…
…before venturing out to nearby Carnaby Street to catch the latter end of Cheap Monday’s party, a highly popular choice for the evening
While scouring Carnaby Street for more freebies, we were led by some frantically waved placards to a very exclusive viewing…
High fashion hat-line Millinery by Rosie Olivia used the perfect opportunity of Fashion’s Night Out to hold an intimate viewing of their SS13 Collection
Rosie Norman, the lovely designer behind the collection, personally made sure we all had a drink to hand while arranging her beautiful hat displays
Our last stop for the night was Hoss Intropia on Regent Street for an in-house runway show and even more free champagne. The following were my favourite pieces of the show, available here.
So in summary, I managed to bag myself a free (and ever so pretty) manicure, some fancy facial cleansing oil, half a Dermalogica skincare set, a Remington hair brush, a bar of Galaxy Ripple and a total of six free beverages, as well as attend a couple of parties and enjoy a front-row view of a runway show – perhaps the most eventful Thursday night of my life. Same time next year Vogue?!
20% of the photo credits go to the beautiful Miss Pauline Obale (also, thanks a bunch for carrying my stuff while my nails were still wet!)
