[Eye Candy] Photo Diary: BHS Luxe Lounge at London Fashion Weekend

A few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to put my fashwan cap on for one day only - thanks to the lovely peeps at BHS, who kindly invited myself and fellow interiors blogger extraordinaire Sarah Akwisombe (aka my favourite partner in crime) to check out the Luxe Lounge at London Fashion Weekend. The British high street giant decorated the exclusive lounge this year using pieces from their new Spring collection of home accessories and lighting and we were tasked to review it (while enjoying free bubbles and amuse bouches, and browsing the fashion collections showcased. I know, it's a tough life, innit?). Want to know how the day went? Read on... 

'I'm with the band...': our full access pass to LFWend - one day, my name will be spelt right...

'I'm with the band...': our full access pass to LFWend - one day, my name will be spelt right...

First of all, I have been following what BHS have been doing over the past few years and, let me tell you, they are knocking it out of the park right now with their home collection and keep making fantastic lights affordable. Remember last year's launch of their fabulous Marquee lighting range? Check it out here and tell me if you don't want to put EVERY SINGLE ONE of the lamps in your cart, like, right now... 

So, Sarah and I were quite excited to see what they had done with the Luxe Lounge decor. This year, London Fashion Weekend was hosted at the Saatchi Gallery in West London and boy, what a fabulous backdrop for a fashwan event! My OCD mind kept wondering what they'd done with all the art, trying to imagine the logistics of removing and storing safely the millions of pounds worth of contemporary art pieces somewhere away from the gallery. I digress as always...

So how did it go on the day?

The first thing we did when we arrived was to try and act like we belonged and that meant the obligatory silly posing sesh at the entrance. Everybody seemed to be doing it before they even got their sunglasses off so we just rolled with it. Two words: Hashtag Awks... 

Yours truly aka the bag lady, awkwardly playing fashion bunny for the day... 

Yours truly aka the bag lady, awkwardly playing fashion bunny for the day... 

We then headed straight to check out the Luxe Lounge to have a little prep, enjoy the free bubbles and canapés and take it all in. 

The luxe lounge reception desk

The luxe lounge reception desk

BHS supplied all the accessories for the Luxe Lounge including not only the lighting, but also textiles like the cushions and throws, as well as vintage plates, faux blooms and candle holders. Despite being a gigantic room with an industrial warehouse feeling, it felt really cosy and warm. We spent quite a lot of time on the little corner below sorting out our plan of attack for the day... 

After a couple of (or three...) flutes of champagne, we headed out to the main areas of the event to see what London Fashion Weekender was all about. I went to Fashion Week a few times over the years, and attended a few catwalk shows in my pre-interiors life, but I always found the whole thing quite intimidating and sometimes a bit too OTT if you don't actually belong to the fashion world. I was pleasantly surprised by this one. It was really relaxed and we actually felt quite at home! 

My partner in crime and I kept being drawn to the same things, like a couple of starving magpies... Everything with colour in it, obvs... And anything where swear words are involved... In particular this collection of plastic shopper bags by The Backyard, a brand fashion brand from Switzerland. The quote on the bag below says it all in my book... 

the backyard's 'epic' shopper bags got us obsessed...

the backyard's 'epic' shopper bags got us obsessed...

The nicest surprise of the day was bumping into a friend of mine - Sarah Baily - who was showcasing her new range of fashion accessories. You really want to check her collection of leather accessories, trust me. All handmade in her studio in North London. The metallic pouch with black stars has my name on it.. 

Sarah Baily's fabulous range of leather accessories got us drooling for hours...

Sarah Baily's fabulous range of leather accessories got us drooling for hours...

And I had to be restrained not to buy one of the puppies below in every colours. They're from Florian London and you can have custom designs like the below hand painted on any bag. They even do personalised monogramming, Boyarde-style, with with a much more affordable price tag. 

After our little browsing session, we attended one of the catwalk shows. Our Luxe Lounge pass meant we had reserved seats on the front row. So we tried to look cool, wore our jackets over our shoulders, sat down at our VIP seats with aplomb and enjoyed the show, which includes the key trends for this season including Beautiful Botanicals (that's floral for us mere mortals), Americana, Pop Art Brights and New Romance. 

sarah akwisombe and yours truly, frow-ready (photo credit: Sarah akwisombe and her magic camera)

sarah akwisombe and yours truly, frow-ready (photo credit: Sarah akwisombe and her magic camera)

After the catwalk show, we headed back to the lounge for a quick coffee and get our stuff together and before we knew it, it was time to say aurevoir and pick up our respective mini me's from childcare... 

What do you think? Makes you want to experience London Fashion Weekender for yourself? What did you think of the BHS accessories in the Luxe Lounge?