London Fashion Week Clichés and Where to Find Them

Everybody knows that fashion is all about branding, you’re either peddling yourself or your wares, but some are better at it than others. Enter Le Bloggaire (a sophisticated upgrade on your basic blogger type). These kids have had one eye on their Instagram feed since they were 12, and have a bank balance that puts Condé Nast’s annual turnover to shame. A truly international bunch, when they’re not peppering the front row you’ll find them taking photos of their meal at Hakkasan, shopping at LN:CC (even Dover Street Market is passé) and creating sponsored content during late night visits to London’s art galleries.

These posit-ironic IT kids couldn’t give a damn about blogs, they have a hoard of adoring friends and fans who follow their every move on social media and they don’t have to curate a thing. They’re cool and subversive, often adopting trends early, if not actually setting them. No-one really knows what they do, or how they fund their hedonistic lifestyles, but if there’s an edgy happening to attend you can be sure they’ll be there. During London Fashion Week, their social media will allow you to glean that they’re around, but you’re unlikely to see them posing for the photographers outside 180 The Strand. If you look hard enough, you might see them getting hair and nails done at Bleach London and WAH nails respectively, but they’re more likely to be busy picking up their clothes at wholesale prices directly from their emerging designer friends and hanging out anywhere before it gets gentrified.

Much like Le Bloggaire, The Modele is a new breed of models who are as much about personality as they are about their ability to shimmy down a catwalk. They’re activists, feminists and beacons of Girl Power, as likely to be protesting next to Vivienne Westwood as they are to be taking a pre-show BoxFit class. They remain really really good looking though, and tall.

Anyone who remembers the line in the Klaxons song that goes ‘Your name’s not down, you’re not coming in’ knows they were really singing about fashion PRs manning the doors before a hotly anticipated show. Events and PR managers are a delight to do business with, but fiercely protective of their brands. Ruthlessly efficient, if you try and breach the ranks they’ll likely take you down – or ask the bouncers to do it for them. You can find them on the doors checking names off, or running frantically around behind the scenes, trying to fix the inevitable last minute disasters.

An increasingly rare breed, the fashion editor still determinedly holds onto old school values around fashion as art, and spends time fondly reminiscing about a more bohemian time in the industry, where long nights of revelry, air kissing and limitless funds were awash in the industry. A simpler time. Still, they’re not ready to give up the fight yet. In London, you’re likely to see them sporting understated items from coveted brands such as Vetements, Gucci and Eckhaus Latta, and the ultimate accessory is still a stack of show invites wedged under your arm. You’ll find them mainly huddled in Mercedes Benz cars as they jet from one show to another, frantically catching up on emails, instagramming and writing notes as they go. Later, they’ll kick back with an expensive meal (expense it, darling) at the Wolseley or recline with a cocktail at The Savoy – when it comes to glamour, you can’t beat the originals.