Belstaff a/w 2012-2013 © Branding Styles

Entering in a dark room covered with fake grass, it was easy to guess what the inspiration for the collection: going back to the roots. There was a strong accent on superior quality fabrics and leather, nature-inspired colour schemes and a vision of strong silhouettes. Women’s and men’s collections were presented at the same time but both reflected the same fashion statement:  elegance with a rough edge.

For women, ladylike skirts were mixed with utilitarian fitted leather jackets. It gave the overall impression of a trendy hunting trip, whether that’s game-shooting or stalking the latest pair of shoes on the high street. The leather – raw, quilted or coated- gave a powerful allure to the silhouettes while adding a modern twist to the outfits thanks to some clever details: a waist-cinching belt, some breast pockets and a python print.

For men, the collection was more eclectic, ranging from the aviator style to the biker chic without forgetting, the city smart. The common themes seemed to be elegance and cosiness. Fitted trousers, chunky-knit jumpers and maxi-bags were combined with wool coats or leather biker jackets in black or brown.

It was a debut collection worth discovering which seemed to take the best of the brand’s heritage while giving it a more contemporary and edgy style.

Exhibition Pringle of Scotland

Clare Waight Keller, who previously worked with Calvin Klein, achieved this tour de force once again by cleverly drawing her inspiration from the 70s. The aesthetic was minimalist and the real focus was put on fabrics and autumnal, warm colours – red, brown, brick red, burgundy and caramel.

The key element of the collection wass undoubtedly the quality of prints and of the striped and lozenge-shaped patterns on the dresses and the jackets. The last outfit of the show – a woollen dark and red jacket , which was somewhere between a poncho, a shawl and a coat – will surely please connoisseurs of such designs.

Overall, the collection sometimes lacked coherence but  it was wonderfully successful in being contemporary without renouncing to its roots.

Being part of the audience was not an affair to be taken lightly because after you passed through the security control, you had to face the suspicious looks of one of the member of the public relations team towards people he didn’t know.

The arrival of the other guests, especially the front rows, proved to be a distraction much more amusing given the variety of personalities in attendance: from the fully-botoxed modern geisha to the drag queen wearing just some leather underwear, passing by the artists with a total bohemian look showing how close they were to Nature, the show was clearly on before the models even started to hit the runway. Nevertheless, the prize went to a woman who took her baby to the show and after he was a bit moved around, he simply barfed on a second-row Japanese buyer… So much for the glamorous image of fashion. The whole scene was completely surreal.

And in the midst of all this madness, a man with a serious look suddenly appeared, probably between 50 or 60 years old, and he sat next to me. Of course, I had absolutely no idea who he was but his presence aroused my curiosity: was he a journalist? A buyer like many of the people around me? He started talking to me and I was surprised to have a fashion companion who was both interesting and affable.

As I still could not find any clues that could have helped me to guess his role, I simply asked (and I must admit not without a dose of naivety) the awkward question: “For which company are you working?” I instantly understood with the amused look he had on his face that it was not the best question I had asked that night. With a lot of elegance, he took some time to answer and it is with great stupefaction that he explained to me he was involved in the launch of www.fashionwiredaily.com.

Needless to say I was a bit amazed and it proved difficult for me to find something sensible to say after that. Fortunetaly, the show started and it enabled me to concentrate on something else for a while. By the way, review of the catwalk show is here.

Once the show was finished, he politely asked for my opinion and invited me to go to the Richard Nicoll show with his ticket. To thank him and show some gratitude, I didn’t find anything better to do than to give him my business card before he disappeared as he arrived, discretely, in the crowd.

Thanks to this invitation, I discovered his identity. His name was Marshall Lester.

I am well aware that this story is offering only a very limited perspective on the fashion industry but I decided to talk about it anyway because beyond my simple personal experience, it is a testimony of what fashion can accomplish: making possible the encounter of two individuals who are living in completely different spheres. But sometimes those worlds collide for a few moments – when it all becomes fascinating.

Dear Mr Lester, if one day you happen to read this, I would like to thank you for this unlikely encounter and I hope that in the future, I will have the pleasure to meet you again and maybe, this time, ask the right questions… perhaps in an interview, who knows?

The crowd of London Fashion Week