LFW: The Good, The Bad and Me!

London fashion week. The good, the bad and me! 

I attended my first ever London fashion week yesterday. As part of Access All ASOS, I was given the opportunity to attend a talk at LFW. Never would I have thought I'd attend fashion week, maybe as a dream, but not for real. Even right up until I was in the building, I didn't believe it was going to happen.  Now of course I was totally panicking over what the hell I was going to wear, and even after lots of changing and contemplating, I was still not happy with what I wore. I have a real issue with my confidence. I know, I'm a fashion blogger, I take photos of myself all the time but how I pick apart myself is not good for the confidence. So attending fashion week and seeing all these gorgeous people, dressed in edgy outfits and gorgeous garments was like being back at school. The sheer horror and panic. You know the popular girls, the gorgeous girls, the ones every girl wants to be friends with, who go to all the parties, who all the boys fancy, yeah it was like that. I was just overwhelmed by these beautiful fashionable people, EVERYWHERE! And then there was me, wearing something I hated and soggy from the rain and smelling like burgers (I'll get to that later). Nice one. 

As soon as you walk into the building their are eyes on you from every direction, people picking apart everyone's choices of outfit, hair and make-up. I was a total wreck, I felt so out of place. Luckily Alex was with me telling me that I looked lovely, you know like boyfriends do as part of their job role. But I couldn't help feeling like a fish totally and utterly out of water, like not even near the waters edge. 

It was a talk called My Big Idea with four lovely ladies; Pandora Sykes, Lou Stoppard, Sharmadean Reid and Melanie Ashley. They've all made a successful career for themselves in fashion, you can catch the pow wow on Youtube here. It was utterly inspiring to hear their words of how they started out, their advice, their critique. I left feeling much more at ease and like I was there with a purpose. Although during the talk I was sat in this minimal white room, surrounded by gorgeous people and all I kept thinking was 'I can smell the burger I had earlier. Can they smell it? Can I spray perfume in here? No of course not.'  

So London Fashion week for my was a totally new experience, but it was amazing. I've tried to be just as honest as possible with how I felt, but as someone who generally is a nervous mess it isn't surprisingly I felt a little awkward. My advice for anyone who goes for the first time or to any fashion event is... 1. Wear what you feel comfortable in. I tried to be something I wasn't, I was going for a 70's babe look and looked more like a marshmallow. So honestly wear what you want and feel good in and you will look amazing because you feel happy and confident. 2. You deserve to be there as much as everyone else. I felt like I was totally out of place, but after listening to the talk and how they all started out, we all have to come from somewhere and we all deserve these opportunities. 3. Take an umbrella, I mean that is pretty helpful for day to day life too. But just enjoy yourself and be happy, I felt utterly blessed to be there and I went home in a total bubble of disbelief. Life is too short to not do things that push you out of your comfort zone and after doing that yesterday I felt so happy.