Off-duty models are teetering through the streets of London at all hours, people on the tube are wearing platform heels and couture at 8am, and our Twitter feeds are full of fashion bloggers complaining about how tired and hungry they are - all of which can only mean one thing...it's London Fashion Week!
Whether you love it or hate it (or perhaps a tortured combination of both), London Fashion Week is important to a lot of people. For journalists and bloggers it's a whirlwind of invite requests, queuing, painful shoes and little-to-no food, and for designers and the fashion industry it marks yet another season and another collection that will dictate the trends and styles of the next six months.
For the rest of us, it can be a bit confusing. While we're not all slaves to trends and wearing what's on the catwalks of LFW, it undoubtedly affects us. As I write this, shops like Topshop and H&M will now be busying themselves with copying the most popular trends, and selling them to us at ridiculous prices.
Looking at what Vogue or the fashion blogging elite are calling "genius" or "the future of fashion" does't always connect, and the "ready to wear" collections have hardly anything readily wearable about them. Unflattering shirt dresses and giant blazers are hardly what us mere mortals wear, but there are some collections that have a high number of very wearable pieces. (Whether they're affordable is a different issue...)
The key is to look at the items individually, not how they're styled or what they're paired with on a painfully thin model. With that in mind, here are a few fabulous and incredibly wearable pieces from some of our favourite designers!
1. Temperley London
Colourful, playful and accessible, this collection from Alice Temperley is fantastic. Obviously, most of us would opt for a bra under this crisp, white top, but talk about a fabulous outfit for Sunday brunch.
2. ALICE by Temperley
What can we say? Alice Temperley knows what normal women wear, and this cape is it. You don't have to be a member of the fashion elite to wear this - it's simple, it's elegant, and please dear god let it be semi-affordable.
3. Olivia Rubin
Dresses, trousers, and tops that aren't see-trough? Be still my heart. This collection is young and bright, and totally unintimidating. There isn't anything about this collection I don't like!
4. Vivienne Westwood Red Label
Insane make-up aside, Westwood designs for women. She designs for the female shape, and what women like to wear. It's fun, it's a bit ferocious and a bit manic. This outfit for a night out with friends? Yes please.
5. Lady Gaga's C*NT Purse
I have no idea who makes this bag, but Gaga was spotted holding it after her appearance at Philip Treacy's show last night. WANT.
6. Clements Ribeiro
This is probably one of my most favourite collections so far from LFW. A fantastic combination of prints, stripes, fancy collars and (Melissa) jelly shoes?! Be still my heart. Everything in this collection is so wearable, we want it now!