London Fashion Week First Time Tips

This September was my first ever visit to London Fashion Week (see Bang On Style’s LFW posts here), 

Last year I had visited London Fashion Weekend after winning some tickets and got a glimpse into how amazing London Fashion Week might be. The Weekend event is a shopping and catwalk event and is also held at Somerset house, but its a public event whereas Fashion Week is trade only so unless you are a blogger, buyer or press it’s pretty hard to be there.

It’s also incredibly confusing and at times secretive about how one gets to be at LFW. I gleaned quite a lot from other blogs after googling tips for LFW and thought it might be helpful to write some of the things I learnt this year from being a London Fashion Week First timer.

Acreditation

On the London Fashion Week website you can apply for accreditation. Which basically means you gain access to the exhibitions and the PR companies for each show will automatically have your details on their list meaning you should receive invites to shows. You need to input your blog info and export your stats from google. The likelihood is unless your stats are incredibly impressive you will probably get rejected (as I did) but apply anyway. It only takes 2 mins and you never know.

Catwalk Tickets

To get tickets for the catwalk shows you will need to email/ phone the PR companies directly. You’ll find all the details for every show contact on the LFW website. Don’t group email. I wrote one email and then changed names and info about the designer/show which made every email personal.

Don’t email too early as there’s a chance you ll be forgotten when the company starts to finalise its guest list. I got most of my tickets in the week running up to LFW so send some emails right at the last minute too as sometimes slots need to be filled if lots of invitees have RSVP’d no.

Another way to snag tickets is to enter some competitions. If your lucky enough to win you may bag yourself a ticket to a show you might otherwise never have got. I won 2 tickets to the amazing Clements Ribeiro show through a comp on the Marie Clare website.

I focused on applying for some of the smaller shows tickets such as those at Vauxhall Fashion Scout. They are a bit easier to get tickets for and are a great introduction to London Fashion Week.

Plan your routes

A lot of the shows are spread far apart so make sure you have time to get between each as some are several tube lines away. Check for tube works too. I missed one of my shows as there was no service on the circle line!

What to wear?

Try not to stress too much about what to wear! That’s easier said than done as ultimately you know lots of people will be looking at what your wearing but try to focus on wearing something you like and feel comfortable in. I wore a combination of High Street and Vintage and made sure I was comfy and not too hot as the weather was very warm 

( see my Bang On Style LFW What I Wore Post here)

I also stuck to my trademark flats and was so happy I did. I did so much walking and was there from 10am through to 11pm at night so my feet would have been so sore in heels. The whole of Somerset house is cobbles too so unless your an incredibly accomplished heel walker you may take a tumble.

On the day

Check your tickets to see if they have a block number or even a small dot, this might mean you are seated. If not don’t be afraid to ask – make sure you queue in the correct queue for seated or standing.

You need to arrive at least half an hour early to most shows to join the queue so if your running late you do risk the chance of not getting in.

If you have fewer shows to go to its always worth waiting outside some other shows till everyone has gone in as there may be standing spaces to fill that you can take.

At the end of the catwalk don’t be afraid to nab the front row goody bags if they haven’t taken them.

Go to Somerset House and soak up the atmosphere. There’s always something happening there and sometimes freebies being given away.

Take lots of pictures and enjoy yourself.

I hope that these tips help anyone heading to London Fashion Week next time and I’d love anyone else tips if you have them??