Strut up or shut up – A catwalk adventure for London Fashion Week
It’s been a week of firsts for me. I tried welsh rarebit, visited the Museum of London, AM WRITING FOR THE HIGH TEA CAST, and walked in London Fashion Week.
Now we all know a good lunch is amazing, and I could probably ramble on for a few paragraphs about any cheese on toast based dish, but I’m here to give you all a little insight into what goes on behind the scenes and on the catwalk at an LFW show. So for flashbulbs and flashing (whoops!), latex and snakes, get your stilettos at the ready and lets go.
For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a dancer at London’s theatre nightclub The Box. It’s kind of fabulous, not least because our costumes are made by the delectable William Wilde. His latex creations have been seen from the Box stage to the bods of ladies like Tori Amos, Rihanna, and Olympians Denise Johns and Lucy Boulton. You can also find pieces from his autumn/winter collection in September’s Vogue.
Yeah, he’s pretty damn good. That said, you can imagine our excitement when he asked us (very sweetly!) to join in his show. Err, YES PLEASE. So Fashion Week arrived, and a handful of Box performers joined the models, Daisy Lowe and an albino Python named Sunny, to launch his new Filthy Wilde collection
Backstage, the melee of models and swathes of fabric made for a hectic but long drawn out afternoon. I was glad to have my phone (and Angry Birds) to hand. Three hours worth of little green pigs bit the dust before I got my turn in makeup. By this time the show was imminent, and it was pretty hard to hold still enough for perfect eyeliner.
Make up done, wig pinned and trimmed, I made my way up to be lubed into my latex and glue on some glittery pink pasties. Fabulous. I love a sparkly nip! Finally we tottered down to the stage in our newly customised shoes and lined up ready to go.
Right. So I’m not a professional model, have never appeared in a show before and quickly discovered that I was walking STRAIGHT AFTER DAISY LOWE. Nerves. Proper nerves. At this point I was in serious danger of making a mess of my mint green high waists. There were a lot of cameras on the other side of those velvet curtains and no choreography to hide behind. Daisy was a gem though and quite rightly pointed out that it’s just walking. Just Walking. Suffice it to say I’m glad it was her standing there not Miss Jay!
The show itself passed in a haze of adrenaline and smoke. My first walk out was a huge rush, and despite nearly falling off the front of the stage (seriously, there was A LOT of smoke…) I came off feeling high and empowered.
Outfit change time… Ok if you’re ever doing a show, take a tan g-string. I didn’t. And the models and dressers backstage got at least 60 seconds of full frontal as I shimmied into my second dress. Good thing I’m not shy I suppose, but that’s definitely a lesson learned!
After we’d all walked we came together in a tableaux and welcomed William onstage for a bow. All in all, it was pretty awesome, and I’d love to do it again. Especially if we’re all given a glass of Prosecco afterwards to celebrate!
