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The first monthly report from our undercover roving reporter. This month she was at London Fashion Week...

 

 

“This is so different from Stockholm Fashion Week” was my first thought when I entered Somerset House and photographers, bloggers and all kinds of fashion people (mainly men) pounced on me and started asking me questions like: “Can I take a picture?” “Where is your jacket from?” and “What inspired you to your look?”. Well… I don’t know, this is how I dress every day, was my second thought. 

Next thing that happened was that an older man in his 70s, in the middle of someone interviewing me, grabbed my arm wanting to take a picture together with me. He didn’t even ask. I found it hilarious and burst out laughing when he put his arm around me and asked someone to take a picture with his iPhone. I stopped laughing when the woman who took the picture said “Yea, he is taking pictures with all the pretty girls today.” I realized; he is not here for the fashion or for the inspiration. He had swag, but I don’t think he was there to show off his personal style... Of all the heterosexual men here this week, how many are really interested in fashion? 

I have been to Stockholm Fashion Week two times and now London Fashion Week two times. So four times all in all. First time I was modeling, second time just to enjoy and the same thing the third time. This year was the first time I was actually working. My job was to capture street trends and taking pictures at fashion shows. I was ready with my cameras and loads of extra memory cards. But, I was not prepared to be the one to filling up the lens myself. I’m not a top blogger or celebrity, I’m not even one of the glamorous models. This got me thinking; What is it about fashion week that attracts so many men to come here. 

For me fashion is about self-expression and being different. Fashion week must attract men in other ways. One of them might be the young girls strutting around the Somerset House courtyard in short dresses exposing their body parts, or it could be the perfect models walking in and out backstage with heavy makeup on, or maby it is the intimacy you feel during a presentation when the girls make eye contact with you (even I felt like the models were posing just for me). Some men would even like to experience what I did during one of the shows I went to; a beautiful model was walking down the catwalk when all of a sudden one of her boobs fell out. That actually made me put my camera down and just stare. But she handled it so professionaly. She just put it right back in and just kept on walking with a stone face. I was impressed!

At fashion shows you get to see clothes that women don’t usually wear on a normal day. It’s far from vulgar, but it’s sexy and classy. For example: who would wear a see-through blues with no bra under it? – No one I know! To see stuff like that live, you have to go to fashion shows. Women like fashion because they like to impress other women with their clothes and also for self expression whiles, I guess, most men are not there for all the green/purple hairstyles, crazy sunshades or the handmade Barbie-head earrings.  They are there for other reasons.