Laurelle Gilbert

Boyfriend is taking some big work exam on Tuesday, so this weekend I’m all alone, catching up on gossip, Gossip Girl and anything everything on Perez.

And can I just say, on the subject of Gossip Girl, I don’t get it. The fashion is not amazing! And I really want it to be. Maybe it will get better? Remember those early episodes of Sex and the City when all Miranda wore was pinstripe suits and ties, and Carrie wore the same thing for more than (shock horror) half an episode! Or even the O.C before the designers started to throw everything at Micha and co too…well maybe things will pick up.

At the moment though I ‘m just not convinced that grey, over-the-knee suede boots teamed with a micro, mini school skirt would ever happen, anywhere…ditto the daughter of a chic Upper East Side dwelling, fashion designer wearing what can only be described as an air stewardess’ uniform from 1984 (Blair this week - that’s the brunette by the way!)
Luckily everything ELLE girl Chloe S seems to do turns to cool. Her latest collaboration - with Uniqlo can be seen everywhere right now she’s fronting their new collection of too cute charity tees perfect for this bonkers weather, I’m getting ‘Leave me alone’ and ‘Sorry I’m late’ for the boyf!

He went to his own fancy dress party dressed as a camel toe and stuck Posh upside down in a carrier bag for his latest ad campaign, not to mention keeping the fashion world waiting on a regular basis for his shows to start and then sending his collection (for spring/summer 08) out in reverse order, starting with his finale bow first!

Welcome to the topsy turvey world of Marc Jacobs - which this season includes court shoes with heels stuck on backwards and underwear as outerwear.

I just didn’t think things could get any more bonkers until I spied this pic of Marc attending a Louis Vuitton event (he is Creative Director of the label) in Brooklyn this week.

Emerald green suit - check. Gold trainners -check. Clutch bag - check. Yes you read it right, clutch bag!

Ahh Marc, what will you come out with next…?

Packing again… We’re off to the Cotswolds for the Easter Weekend.

One weather man says it’s going to snow while another says sunshine is on the way – aggh!

What to take? The boyfriend will definitely not be impressed if I turn up with too much luggage. Especially as he’s carrying it all!

I’d love to think I could just turn up in my jeans and parka, but you never know, we could quite easily bump in to Kate Moss in the local pub…her house is in the Cotswolds isn’t it?!

Maybe she’ll stay in Paris for the long weekend. She’s been in the City of Lights with boyf Jamie Hince and his band the Kills all week.

She really is morphing nicely into the third member of the group if these pics are anything to go by…

Love, love , love Kate’s new anti it bag statement. All week she’s been carrying a battered old canvas knapsack everywhere she goes.

Very eco – anti consumer…

Bravo Kate!

Coco Rocha is my favourite catwalker.

She’s the model with the coolest, sexiest walk in town and has such a striking look.

Today I hear she’s going to start acting lessons when the shows are over.

Why Coco? Why?

All the mystery and silent allure that comes with being a model - that and you catwalk strut -  will all be lost if we see you in a rom-com crying in to your beer because you’ve lost the love of your life Matthew Mcconaughey.

Don’t do it Coco!!!

You might think the life of a Fashion Editor is all glamour and style, afternoon teas and fashion shows, but it’s not. This week I have mainly been editing… no not 200o words on the beauty of Balenciaga but 3000 words on Tenant and Landlord Disputes and how a rent review works! Really!!

Why? Because my boyfriend has written his dissertation on something about offices and shops and rent and it has lots of graphs and statistics in it and I don’t understand it, so it took me twice as long to read it as anything else would…but I got through!

‘I don’t understand what all this high street intersection, optimum position on the high street means.’ I ask him on the phone. “Is there a Zara nearby? That would make it an optimum high street to me!”

‘Hmm’ just look for spelling mistakes he replies….

Ahh that done, it’s back to Paris fashion week! No…more paperwork!

I have to fill out my expenses from New York Fashion week. Squeezing tiny little dollar taxi receipts with no dates on in to a tiny excel spreadsheet - my eyes might bleed by the end of all this.

Thank goodness, eventually all the admin is over and I can finally enjoy Paris.

Balenciaga - breathtaking.

Dior - shockingly wearable.

Chloe,Stella and Lanvin still to come.

I can’t wait!

Were sitting waiting for the House of Holland show to start in a packed warehouse next to a ‘massage parlour’ in Old Street. We’ve been waiting for about 25 minutes and one very prestigious fashion editor has started chanting form the front row, Henry! Henry! I’ve never seen anything like it!

Eventually the show starts and it’s kind of worth the wait - it’s a Scottish highland fling of a show complete with Aggy in tartan wedding dress.

Love Hener’s new accessories. Not sure a fake fur sporan is exactly me but I know these are going to be big somewhere, some how next season.

The waiting seems to be a recurrent theme as we queue for over an hour outside a freezing warehouse (another theme!) for Gareth Pugh. Even the celebs he’s recruited to wear Pugh in the front row are crouching in the door ways of curry houses along Brick Lane trying to keep warm and not get run over. London is officially out of control!

Do these East End boys think they are the new Marc Jacobs? Hmm……….

I’ve just about recovered from the Gucci extravaganza hosted by her madgesty Madonna in aid of Malawi and Unicef on Thursday night in NYC.

When I say I danced, on the dance floor, next to Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow, Demi and Ashton and Kate Hudson, and probably twenty other may-jor stars I promise, I am not exaggerating one bit.
It was not the usual, roped off VIP section for them, but full on mingling with us journos…ok and about 300 other guests, but mingling with the real people none the less!!!

I actually got to see Tom and Katie close up in the flesh (eek!) - and yes she is absolutlely stunning in real life too, and quite a bit taller than him!

Just enough time to recover from the slight apple martini over load to catch Peter Som’s debut for the relaunched Bill Blass in Manhattan before the night flight home and straight in to London Fashion Week - via Camden for a quick hair cut.

I just had a few inches trimmed off and a quick blow dry before the start of London fashion week - and what do you know, I’m barely off the bus and back in my lounge when news breaks that Camden Market is on fire. Wowzers! The Hawley Arms usually only makes it on to the news if Amy Winehouse is on a bender in there, now it’s completely burned down.
Received loads of texts checking I’m out of the hairdresser - ahh!

It’s all anyone could talk about at the Topshop show in Marylebone…that and what’s going to be hot (sorry no pun intended!!) for next season!

It’s a bit too early to predict full on trends but as in New York the London catwalks are covered in plaids, checks and punky influences- and I for one am loving that.
An emerging favourite of mine has to be dogtooth check - and the bigger the better, a la Marc Jacobs and Jaeger!

The weather has changed once again – bonkers, it snowed yesterday before the sun came out and has been raining on and off for 48 hours, which again has thrown my wardrobe into complete malfunction.
Ended up having to put my ‘to fly in only’ grey hoodie on over the chiffon dress I was wearing, which I thought might actually look quite Lower East Side, but in fact just made me look like I’d put on 5 lbs.
If the shows are anything to go by though I need to abandon all my new floaty, feminine, romantic looks anyway (which I can’t wear because it’s raining!!) and toughen up (again) for winter. From Rodarte to Marc by Marc Jacobs things look set to get a little punky next season. There are lots of raw edges, zips, plaid, checks and tartan everywhere – all very Westwood and nothing like the romance we saw at the last collections. But we’re only half way through the first week…so it could all change.
Already on my autumn wish list is a giant black and blue dog tooth check skirt from Marc by Marc, and everything at Proenza. Sadly I just don’t have the budget or, let’s face it, the lifestyle for that – not much call for sequined cocktail dresses on a Saturday night at the O2 cinema on Finchley Road – but I will definitely be stealing some of the styling tips – clashing mustard tights and green shoes and pairing red with purple.
Plus I think I’ll be investing in some subtle sequins….they are everywhere!

So, I’ve arrived in New York for fashion week and despite it being the beginning of February the weather feels more like the beginning of spring - bright sunny and crisp, just how I heart new York, but it has wrecked havoc on my carefully planned wardrobe! I’ve been over heating all day in ‘the thickest wool coat I’ve got’ and over the knee socks which I wore under my wide leg jeans…lucky i didn’t put my thermals on too!
But I’m not the only one at the shows suffering a little wardrobe malfunction. You won’t believe it but there are more than one or two extremely famous, powerful, successful editors sporting some extremely questionable footwear.
There seems to be a late 1990s pointy toed, kitten heeled, tight, knee high boot revival going on . Remember those knee highs in black stretchy fabric or suede that Kate Winslet used to wear in 1998? I thought they had all retired to Hampshire to die a slow death in someone royal’s girlfriend’s wardrobe, but no, they are here alive and kicking in New York - in taupe suede no less. Shock-ing!
Anyway, tomorrow I shall have to find a little time between Halston (eek ! can’t wait) and Proenza (eek eek really can’t wait!) to buy a mac…and a cocktail dress, because now that my invitation to Madonna’s Gucci party at the UN on Wednesday has arrived, the old black number I brought with me seems just a little inadequate…

I find myself at Selfridges seeking last minute sale bargains.

Did you know a man actually got stabbed here on the first day of the sale!! And not by a bargain crazed woman with 40 % off Prada in her sights either… but by another man!

Anyway I have found a bar-gain! A silk printed Marc by Marc Jacobs skirt that has been reduced from, holy mackerel, £200 to £30! I’ll take thank you very much!

It just happens to be something I wanted all season as well as totally helping with my twice annual what will I wear to fashion week conundrum.

Figure and funds not withstanding I would arrive at JFK on February 1^st, head to toe in new season Roberto Cavalli with a suitcase full of the rest of his spring collection for the week ahead.

I’m not actually what you call a Cavalli girl (ie have never worn animal print or gold leggings and do not look to Posh Spice for style inspiration) but his new collection is just how I want to look for early spring. Chic Italian 70s trouser suits, chunky stack heels and floral print shirts with high waist jeans. But, maybe without the cotton wool ball hair.

Rang boyfriend immediately to share the good news..“Paying £30 for something in the sale means it was only ever worth that in the first place. Designer clothes are a rip off!” He says. He doesn’t get it. And this attitude does not bode well for future gift wish lists!