Wednesday 6th September: Notting Hill Carnival 2107 - how to dress

This year's festival featured unprecedented glorious hot sun from start to finish.  It actually felt like being in the tropical climate of Trinidad Carnival where I began celebrations earlier this year.  Before we knew that the English weather would bless us with this heatwave weekend in the midst of rain and wind, I wrote a guide of how to dress for the Evening Standard:

"Dressing for Notting Hill Carnival as a spectator is a dichotomy between wearing your best garms to enter the spirit of joyful abandon but nothing you'd want to obliterate because that is a guarantee. Throughout the day your body will be a canvas for rain, paint, talcum powder, chocolate, rum, beer, hot sauce and potentially worse should you fall down a kerb. FACT.
I get a cheap mesh body suit in the Summer sales and customise it with rhinestones, tassels and feathers. Use the same crystals to glue motifs onto your plastic cup / hipflask for drinking on the road. Tie your hair up with a bandana for preservation and this should be your flag of heritage if you have it. Accessorize with door-knocker hoops, a whistle and horn from street traders or soundsystems handing them out. Fill a fanny pack with wet-wipes, hand sanitiser, blister plasters, lipstick and glitter. Sew pom-pom fringe onto the tops of fish-net pop-socks and pull out your brightest creps that you don't mind defacing. I have a special pair just for Jouvet, they look like Margiela paint splatter trainers circa early 00's. Lastly but most importantly top-off with a waterproof. Luckily there's a flood of iridescent macs on the market to match your sequin sheen. "

Here are snaps from my look this year which had green ribbon decorations in my hair for the Grenfell Tower campaign request to wear green for the weekend as mark of respect.  

Special thanks to Most Wanted Wines for the " Last Of The Summer Wine* " care package of a rainbow backpack, battery charger, glitter makeup and wine sachets for a bacchanal!

(*form of dance, involves gyration of hips, can be slow or fast must always be sexy. performed to mainly west indian music like reggae, calypso and soca.)

Tuesday 23rd February: LFW AW16 Ashish - Backstage

Ashish's collection came down the catwalk to the soundtrack of The Orb's "Little Fluffy Clouds" with models floating along under ginormous cumulus afros.  Each one had been tinted to the exact shade of the block colour look, so that the finale came together as one complete spectrum of girls.  The disco inspired collection had slips of sequin dresses straight out of Studio 54, ready for the accumulating AW16 1970's trend.   

Weds 28th October: Ashish, Fashion In Motion at The V&A Museum - backstage details

Ashish is the latest designer to have a retrospective as part of the V&A Museum's "Fashion In Motion" series of free fashion shows.  Its been a decade of the designer's sequin collections coming down the catwalks at London Fashion Week, so a fitting time to dig thru the archives of his workshop in India.  The sparkly looks started with silver screen Hollywood sirens in floor-length gowns, gradually shifting to two-piece sportswear separates and even neon hi-vis vests.   All set against the glinting gold gilt Raphael Gallery, the metallics shimmered and reflected the spotlights with model and muse Larry B's snake hips sashaying the way. 

See the current exhibition "The Fabric Of India" at the museum now.

See archive Fashion In Motion posts from Peter Jensen, Meadham Kirchhoff , Kansai Yamamoto, Kenzo,  Craig Lawrence

Tuesday 22nd September: LFW SS16 - Ashish, backstage

Splatters of sequin spectrums like a confetti canon explosion - Ashish SS16 was my favourite season so far with a loose approach to the bead work like abstract brush strokes on the fabric.  The street-cast skater girls opened the show by speeding down the runway and Larry sashayed down the length sprinkling the front row with fists full of glitter.   Ruffled pop socks and bucket hats were also embellished with shiny flecks to accessorize the sheer baby doll dresses and denim bow, bell bottoms.  Shout-out to Anna Trevelyan on another stellar styled show full of colour, fun and uplifting energy (seen here with her pink hair).