Evening Standard - ES Magazine
AFTER DARK
To Rotherhithe first for the debut London show of Belgium designer Raf Simons and the first of two fashion happenings in the capital. Taking over the Printworks club, the designer sent models down a runway which doubled as a catwalk, serving Cîroc Mules mere minutes before the models stalked down. There, we caught up with super Erin O’Connor who had gone red for the occasion, ‘I asked for something between tomato sauce and tangerine,’ she told us. ’Brave,’ one editor interjected, ‘you could have come out all Sharon Osbourne.’ ‘Well, I’ll tell you a secret,’ Erin whispered, ‘this was all done without me… It’s a wig and is literally glued to my head.’ Do you get to keep it we asked? ‘Yes.’ Genius. Across town in Soho, Prada held a party for 1,000 people to launch its new fragrance Paradoxe. Luckily our number swept in with DJ Jamie xx and made full use of his dressing room, while outside we heard talk of one seriously senior fashion maven exclaiming, ‘I’M AT A RAVVVVEEE!!’ with her arms outstretched to the sky. Somebody had been on the shandies.
Frieze: the annual explosion of art, parties, a shed load of booze and general fabulousness. Among rugs on sale for $2.5m we bumped into Honey Dijon who was there shopping for her new London home; Ruinart (our favourite) held its annual pop-up bar with an opening lunch which saw more than one or two sozzled editors — one art writer who will remain nameless propped up the bar for seven hours; respect. New York-based Lebanese designer Eli Mizrahi flew into town to host a dinner with two of the Kates — Moss and Hudson — along with Rosie H-W and Iris Law, while across town we decamped to the Arts Club for the Evening Standard party where one member of staff — again no names — got thrown out. Ouch.
Honourable mention of the week goes to Janet Jackson, back on the circuit for the 25th anniversary of her hit album Velvet Rope. First, Janet did a PA at Shoreditch House, and next came talk from the security guards at the Alexander McQueen show, who tried to tell her driver that the road he was driving down was one-way. Down rolled the back window where JJ sat and responded, ‘No, this is my way’ and drove on. Legend.