" As the sun finally came out in London to celebrate the summer – it was time for the fashion industry to celebrate Christmas – yes, it was resort time.
Resort, or 'pre collection' is yet another collection that designers throw together during the year. It’s a range that delivers into store around Christmas, allowing the stores to spruce up their baring rails in the panic-buy that ensues in December. Traditionally resort (that looks like a spring / summer collection) was brought to life to add some new-ness to rich women’s wardrobes as they jet off to faraway lands when the weather gets too cold for them (hence its name). Clearly this isn’t the case for me, it’s just an excuse to buy more stuff - and apparently I'm not alone in this. These days resort is huge with many designers jumping on the bandwagon, with many reckoning it’s their biggest selling collection of the year.
This week I was lucky enough to be invited to a few designer's private 'pre order' evenings. The resort collection has been in international department store sales appointments for a few weeks and the pre-order evenings coincide with the brands submitting their final orders to factories...oh, and did I mention we can buy the pieces at the barest minimum 'cost' price? Lovely but somewhat dangerous to label anything a 'Bargain' – this was never going to end well. The splurges took on average around 3 hours per designer. A huge privilege yes, but there is something rather disappointing about walking out of there with nothing but a very heavy credit card receipt and a 5 month wait.
Still, nothing like a few fashion events to ease the pain. This week I was invited to Osman Yousefzada's party to celebrate his new magazine 'The Collective' and his first resort collection. The weather was typically disgusting but it did allow me to whip out my new AW Emerald green herringbone wool dress – love! The party and its guests were posh and arty. Not generally my crowd but I snuck off and spent most of the evening with one of London's favourite drag queens – Jeanette - who came dressed as Boy George circa 1990. I just love me a cat amongst the pigeons.
Friday night it was Christopher Kane's 30th birthday at his studio and pretty much most of the London cool crowd and industry insiders were there, along with a Saturday Night Fever-esque dancefloor and a couple of good friends including a special ex work colleague and Downton Abbey's Laura Carmichael who looked typically beautiful.
The weekend finished up with a lunch with my two precious Power Gays. Although being in this crazy industry can be exciting, it can sometimes be soulless and have more shallow moments that you can shake a stick at. The Power Gays can balance those occasional cold snaps and bring out the rays of sun. I maybe looking forward to basking around town in my new resort collection in December but for now, let's just enjoy the sun..."
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