Vogue Fashion Festival 2013- Alber Elbaz and Donatella Versace

Those of you that have read my previous posts will know that I promised to review the festival after I had been. So the following is my take on this very fashionable event.

On a slightly cloudy, gloomy Sunday afternoon I made my way to the 2013 Vogue Fashion Festival. Wearing a Giambattista Valli white skirt with sheer tulle panel paired with a flowery Zara blouse and my trusted Louboutins I felt pretty confident that I looked fashionable enough for Vogue.
My misguided notion of being well dressed only lasted until I walked in through the doors of the venue and literally crashed into the fashion brigade. They were definitely out in full force to support Vogue UK hosting the festival for a second year. Groomed to an inch of their life these women and (few) men looked like a sea of beautiful swans swimming in the elegantly transformed Queen Elizabeth Hall of the Southbank Centre.

As usual my attention went straight to the footwear. Everyone without exception wore beautiful shoes; it is unfortunate that I could not photograph them all without looking like quite the stalker. There were beautiful Chanel bags all around, so much so that I am afraid to say I got slightly put off by it all. Capes have definitely made a comeback as I saw several people sporting one.

There was an exhibition of sorts outside the hall for people to wonder around at their own pleasure. I had tickets for both Alber Elbaz and Donatella Versace which were one hour apart. I had also arrived slightly early therefore had time to have a good look at the stalls and exhibitions that were set up before and after my sessions. There was a Vogue beauty parlour set up where you could get you hair braided in different styles and have your make-up done. You could then proceed to the Vogue cover shoot stall where you could have your own Vogue cover shoot. They had all the accessories for you to borrow and I have to say I was tempted to have my own Vogue cover holding the Chanel's new Hula Hoop bag. In addition they were doing 'Vogue photoshop' on your cover shoot as well. It was a win win situation. But alas there were long queues and I didn't have the time nor patience to wait.

One of the walls of the exhibition was dedicated to past and present Vogue covers giving it a red carpet feel. Many people were getting their pictures taken with the covers as background. There were two cafe's on site, both very busy. The adjoining Vogue shop were selling the usual memorabilia sold at festivals (festival mugs, t-shirts as well as books by speakers).I bought a Versace black and golden t-shirt which turned out to be one of my best buys as Donatella signed it later in the evening!

First up for the sessions was Alber Elbaz. From YSL to Lanvin, I have always loved his work. After listening to him on sunday I became an admirer of him as well. Elbaz was just the right amount of funny and self-depricating during his hour long session. He was being interviewed by Alexandra Shulman, editor of Vogue UK who asked him questions  ranging from his experiences in the Israeli army to being the creative director of Lanvin for the past 10 years. Elbaz explained that his passion for fashion was 'never about clothes, it was women'. His aim is to design clothes for women that 'feel and look good on women'. It was refreshing to see a fashion designer talk about food quite as much as he did; at one point he referred to his new book as 'short and fat, just like me'. He also went onto admit that the only people he were jealous of were those 'that could eat forever and not get fat'. He was all praises for Victoria Beckham. Apparently Elbaz has always wanted to sing but due to being shy has never quite managed to take it up. He saw Victoria recently and told her 'Victoria if you can do fashion I can sing'.

On a more serious note he talked about how high fashion was moving into board rooms and meetings. In his words designers were now 'googling Africa rather than going to Africa' to be inspired. He left us with the words 'fashion is not about second skin, it's a fantasy. The fantasy of a dress'. Well his words sure made me fantasise about working with him (hey everyone should have a pipe dream!).

I did not envy Donatella Versace's task of following Elbaz after his incredible session. However, she surprised me. I expected her to be 'plastic-fantastic' but she turned out to be more 'fantastic-fantastic'. She was very funny and engaging with the audience. I had always dismissed her as a fashion designer who was more flash that fashion but she certainly proved me wrong.

Starting from her very close bond with her brother, to her first line for Versace, to loosing her beloved brother in tragic circumstances, she came across as a genuine, strong and very brave woman.  It must have been a very daunting task to take helm of Versace when she was still grieving. She explained that most of her arguments with her brother was regarding the lengths of skirts as she always wanted them to be 'shorter and tighter'. Unsurprisingly when asked what she favoured as her personal style she explained 'tight and figure hugging'. Really Donatella? We would have never guessed. She also seemed like an avid advocate for new designers. She had great things to say about both Christopher Kane and J W Anderson; both of whom worked for Versace. Incidentally they were also present during her session and sitting five rows ahead of me. How I held back my stalker self from going to ask for pictures I do not know. After her session was over she signed some of our Versace t-shirts; my only complaint was that though the queue wasn't very long she only signed t-shirts for the first 10-12 people. I understand that she has to go and get her private plane back to Milan as she is very busy but surely another ten-fifteen minutes wouldn't have killed her. But hey if Miuccia Prada is one of her close friends she must be doing something right.

Anyway, overall a very enjoyable day, I thoroughly recommend going next year. Just remember definitely dress to impress- these voguettes (is that a word?) take their fashion rather seriously.

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