Fashion Month:
It's Time For Change
Before we head into the actual topic of this post, can I just have a moment to remember how cool I felt in this look during fashion week in Milan? One of the huge bonuses of the entire months shows is discovering brands, trying new trends and styling pieces that I may never have been brave enough to wear otherwise. I'm very kindly offered loans of some beautiful clothing and accessories and quite often that for me is equally as inspiring as the new collections themselves.
I never would have chosen this Sportmax look without the opportunity to loan it for the Milan SS20 show and I would say this look with the statement hat teamed with classic tailored pieces, was my most complimented look of the month. An outfit that was entirely out of my comfort zone at first glance but in turn boosted my confidence.
Alongside some of the incredible pros of the fashion month calendar, there are of course a few cons that I am no stranger to and it's left me feeling like I need your opinion on this coming show season. So here I am, currently in Meribel on a ski trip with Alex, sitting by the cosy fire and wondering what my fashion month in February 2020 should look like.
Work never stops!
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My current fear when it comes to fashion month, is just how burnt out I get about half way through the season. I struggle to balance all my usual work with the work and travel of fashion weeks on top, I struggle to be a good girlfriend (now wife) and I struggle to stay healthy through it all - so often I get ill during or immediately after. I of course know this isn't a life or death situation and it's most definitely a personal choice to take on the amount of work I do, but up until the last year it never seemed as though fashion month was a choice I made. It was a part of my growth as a fashion lover and a fashion blogger. In my careers so far, I've always been an advocate of networking and fashion month is the biggest exmaple of that in the year. Networking is how you meet the people that make a difference in your life and how you get to know the people that can make a difference in your career. Any career has a certain amount of 'it's who you know' and self employed content creation through fashion, beauty, travel and lifestyle is certainly no exception. The combination of inspiration, networking and the pure enjoyment that fashion brings me (after all so much of my education revolved around fashion too) has meant I have attended fashion weeks with gusto over the past 5 years. But what about 2020?
The truth is, the longer I've had the chance to attend shows over this career of mine, the more I've realised that each attendance may not mean as much to the brand as it means to you. It seems so obvious but you count yourself so lucky to be invited to any shows that the bigger picture isn't always in view. I've had some truly uncomfortable experiences over the years, ranging from disappointing to embarrassing to infuriating and I know I've not been alone in that feeling either. However some designers and PRs truly make you a friend of the brand and your excitement is wonderfully reciprocated every season. Those are the shows that stick in my mind and offer me the greatest chance to share a truly worthwhile experience. Insight into the collections, the inspirations and the culminating event - that's how I wish all of my fashion calendar was spent.
So here we are, 6 weeks or so away from the next fashion month and I need to sit down with my team and work out how the next set of shows will look. Do I invest thousands of pounds on hotels and travel and attend tens of shows in each of the 4 cities, filming and photographing each one? Or do I scale things back and really only attend the cities and shows that benefit me, my brand and most importantly anyone who chooses to consume my content?
What I'd love to know is how you see fashion month? Do you gain anything from seeing the shows? Do you prefer to see the incredible street style? Do you like to see the reality behind the shows? Do you love getting an insight into backstage? I'd love to know even if the answer is you truly don't enjoy the coverage. Anything I create/do should always be in the interests of both of us. Myself as a blogger gaining insight into a huge part of the fashion industry and you being a consumer gaining inspiration from the shows that dictate the trends we see later on our high streets. It's important to me to know when we're at a crossroads we can make decisions like this together. Let me know your view on the season below and perhaps what you'd like to see from me next year too?
