Known for their strong celebrity following of Alexa Chung, Peaches Geldof, Fearne Cotton and Jaime Winstone, to name but a few, PPQ are the go-to-brand for London's fashion elite.

 

The PPQ designers, Amy Molyneux and Percy Parker, know exactly how to churn out pretty party dresses and aesthetic splendour, wowing audiences every time. And this fashion week was no different, except instead of viewing the creations from the comfort of my laptop - via style.com - I was up close and personal, experiencing the wonder that is, backstage at London Fashion Week.

  

 

The atmosphere backstage at a fashion show is as hectic as you so rightfully imagine; doe-eyed models literally behaving as mannequins as you guide clothes onto their lean frames, camera flashes going off in every direction getting those necessary shots for the Style Bibles and not to mention the scary, fashion-forward assistant dominating the hapless volunteers. It's all there.

 

Preparations kicked off at half past five - even though the show was scheduled to start at eight - and John Rocha was in the section next door getting ready for his Tudor Court themed show, when my friend and I arrived at Somerset House, the new home for LFW. We were assigned to be dressers, but that quickly changed as we were among the seven chosen to work Front of House. Working backstage is an experience in itself, but to be placed Front of House was simply amazing. Small jobs like organising goody bags quickly became stressful as there were not enough to fill the first two rows - the most important rows of every fashion show - and this wasn't helped by the fact that the photographers kept stealing them each time we averted our gaze.

At half past eight, the show began. Invitations to the PPQ fashion week show get sent to up and coming stars of the fashion, music and television industry, and so I wasn't too surprised when I had to guide Pixie Lott and the cast of Skins to their seats alongside drag queen and DJ Jodie Harsh and fashion journalist Liz Jones. Amy Winehouse's god-daughter Dionne Bromfield was sitting next to George Lamb and Peaches Geldof in the front row, watching the beautiful creations strut down the catwalk. Another perk about being Front of House is that as soon as everybody's happily seated, you're done for the day, and all you have left to do is sit and enjoy the show and then wander off to the after party.

 

By Petrina De Gouttes