A London Stylist: Behind The Scenes | The making of a Press Day

Whilst away in Barbados, PR agency Lee Publicity contacted me to ask me to work with them on their upcoming Autumn Winter Press Day for one of their biggest clients, Littlewoods.

They wanted me to edit the new Autumn Winter collections (including their regular celeb ranges from Myleene Klass and Coleen Rooney), style up all the mannequins for the show, and select what goes on the rails for the London Fashion Press to view at the show - which was held earlier this week.

It was a really great opportunity to help the PRs understand what we as Fashion Editors want to see at events. You'll often find journalists snap/Tweet/Instagram/Facebook the same pieces at press shows, that's because we are all looking for the same things - key pieces that really represent the new season, items that will photograph well - whether on a model or on a still life shopping page - and things we know readers will want to buy.

So it was fantastic to have the chance to work with an agency to select the winning pieces and style them into outfits that will catch the press' eyes. And I really wanted the Littlewoods product to look as cool as any High Street fashion brand.

When I arrived at the venue, The Hopsital Club in Covent Garden, the day before the event this week, my first task was to get to work on unpacking the huge trunks of clothes. I needed to establish and understand visually the brand's 3 key trends for AW13; Campfires, Full English and Urban Uniform. From there I worked the rails into outfits, and then had an edited rail of selects to sit next to each visual display for the press to browse through.

Each trend had it's own area at the event space to tie in with the trend.

The first trend, Campfires, was all about comfy check shirts, chunky knits, navajo details and lots of denim, so had an area covered with patches of canvas and littered with tea lights in mason jars.

The next, Full English, highlighted traditional British looks like wax and quilted jackets, mixed with vintage-looking tea dresses and quirky prints and had a stand decorated with old books and vintage lampshades.

The final, and biggest, trend, Urban Uniform, was a modern urban collection with a monochrome and khaki palette, big on stripes, including maxi skirts, combat trousers and cool jersey. It had it's very own zebra crossing to work with.

The event went brilliantly the following day with lots of compliments on the styling. Hurrah!

It was a busy day so just some phone photos to show some behind the scenes of the making of a Press Day...