Susie Bubble Backstage London Fashion Week

I'm Susie Lau, but most people know me as Susie Bubble.

My fashion blog has taken me around the world, but today I'm back home

to see some of my favourite designers at London Fashion Week.

This is my exclusive access-all-areas experience at the opening

of London Fashion Week.

So, here we are at Somerset House.

It kind of feels a bit wrong going in this early.

I feel like I'm going to be told off.

Lots of guys going, "You can't do that, you can't do that". Yeah, see?

Going to take you through into the runway.

Here we are.

The first show that we're going to be seeing is JJS Lee.

She's known for beautiful tailoring and a very unique take

on pattern cuttings.

I think it's this way.

We're going to get a cheeky glimpse of the clothes.

You can see here that's look number six. Emilie...

is wearing look number six.

Really beautiful textures.

This is kind of laminated sort of hessian.

Nice bit of colour.

Even comes with underwear. Oh, no, have I taken it out of order?

Hope not.

THEY LAUGH

What's up?

This is Jackie. This is Jackie, designer JJS Lee.

You're opening London Fashion Week again. How do you feel?

Nervous, excited.

You must be extra tired because first day, really, really early.

Are we allowed to take out...? We can't take out the clothes?

- We can. - We can?

It's like Christmas. Could I try it on?

OK.

So, yeah, this is kind of unheard of for someone to be

grabbing clothes off a rail and trying things on before a show.

But here I am doing it.

This is a lovely texture.

It's kind of delicious really.

It's kind of weird.

It's shiny on the outside and then inside it just feels like cotton.

I don't know, it's just... it's just different, isn't it?

Without being loud and ostentatious.

Not a model. Just repeat.

Not a model.

Super-beautiful really. I love how the sleeves kind of

- come up the arms. - Exactly.

Thank you so much, Jackie, for letting me try it on.

OK.

Hectic.

# Put some lipstick on

# Perfume your neck and slip your high heels on

# Rinse and curl your hair, loosen your hips

# And get a dress to wear...#

I actually really like steaming clothes.

# I'm the one who's been coming around looking to loving you. #

Look at these!

# You're the medicine

# I need to heal the way you make me feel

# I'm gon' be manicured

# You wanna be man cured

# Ma-ma-ma-manicure

# She wanna be man cured

# Salon's enough for her

# Not to feel so insecure

# Serial killer, man is a goner

# Manicure! #

On day one I'm just basically trying to see as much as possible

and there are lots of little presentations

that are kind of dotted all around town,

and it's just about trying to get to see those

and also see shows, which is always really, really tricky

because the schedule is really tight.

We're off to see Faustine Steinmetz, which does things

like hand-woven denim and almost like a little cottage industry.

I'm so happy you made it.

I just got back from New York, so this is like,

just completely perked me up.

We're now on our way to Eudon Choi back at Somerset House.

We are stuck in traffic.

Such short distances you could probably walk,

but, for some reason, we like to torture ourselves with traffic.

It's a lot fuller now, you can see.

There's just loads of people with cameras in general.

- How are you? - I'm good.

- Hiya. - Hi.

Thanks.

Christopher Kane jacket.

How are you?

- Can we see your bag? - Yeah, sure.

Christopher Kane jacket.

- Out of my shot, excuse me. - Christopher Kane coat.

- Yeah. Cheers. - Thanks, bye.

Sometimes when I'm really busy, though,

and you're walking through here,

sometimes you have to go, "Sorry! I can't stop."

You feel really like...a bit of a bitch but, you know.

Just...sometimes you're actually rushing, you know.

Hello!

Hi!

- How are you? - How are you?

- I don't know, a bit dazed, I think. - Yeah?

What are you looking at this season?

The collection is inspired by the painter Georgia O'Keeffe.

Oh, I love Georgia O'Keeffe!

This is a lot of black-and-white tailoring,

combining masculinity and femininity.

- So everything is a bit softer? - Exactly.

What is hair and make-up like?

We referenced one of the Georgia O'Keeffe portraits.

Messy hair, but just straight back,

petals, sort of matt finishing on the lips.

Cool.

- Great. - I just felt I just gave

more clear sort of description of the hair and make-up

than my collection, I think!

So, you're on...?

- Two. - Two o'clock, yeah.

Well, when Jackie did her show earlier, it was really calm.

- Yeah? - Yeah.

But I think it's now a bit more frenetic.

MUSIC: When The Levee Breaks by Led Zeppelin

12 minutes to the shoe run!

They put on the shoes that they are going to be wearing in the show

so that they can practise walking in them.

When you get onto the catwalk, we're not stopping. Just centre yourself.

That was the run-through.

Perfect. Thank you.

# If it keeps on raining

# Levee's gonna break

# If it keeps on raining... #

So, it's four minutes to two and the show is supposed to start at two

and the girls are not fully dressed yet -

some are still in hair and make-up.

Please!

Serena? Serena?

# Mean old levee taught me to weep and moan

# Mean old levee... #

Come here!

But the short change is between...

# Got what it takes to make a mountain man leave his home

# Oh well, oh well, oh well... #

There are too many people! Step back! You're blocking!

Hello.

- High-five. - Good choice.

Are all the girls through?

Something is happening, thank you.

Oh, no, they are with the BBC as well.

I've been told everybody out, those are the instructions by the designer.

- All right. - And I've got a show to start,

so as soon as you're out, I can start the show.

OK, OK, we're going, we're going, we're going.

There's one reason why I don't normally come backstage.

Everyone gets really agitated and you kind of, yeah,

definitely feel like you're intruding when you're backstage.

# Going down, going down

# Whoo-hoo, whoo-hoo. #

We are on our way to Trager Delaney, a really, really fun new design duo.

Now they're doing their first presentation

on schedule at London Fashion Week.

It's very Kim and Lowell to do something like this.

Don't actually know where to go.

- Congratulations! - Thank you!

Four shows in two hours. That's madness.

It pays to come backstage at any show

because there are details that you totally miss.

We are seeing Shrimps. Shrimps is basically a faux-fur label.

I think Shrimps and Hannah

definitely did kick off a bit of a furry Fraggle thing.

All the autumn-winter collections are going into high-street stores now.

We're seeing a lot, a lot of, you know, kind of fun fur.

You would definitely attribute that

to what Hannah has done with Shrimps.

- MAN: Yeah, yeah, yeah... - Ooh!

That was really close.

There is already a queue of people.

It's kind of like the hot ticket of today, I guess.

- Bring Susie through. - Hey! How are you?

I'm good. Thank you for coming.

- How are you? - How are you?

Good. Welcome.

MUSIC: Lights Out by Santigold

# Lights out

# Shoot up the station

# TV's dead Where's there to run?

# Watch everybody... #

For some reason, I thought maybe she might do like a faux-fur bikini.

I mean, how would it dry?

# Won't let them see now how they had won

# Still I wait another round... #

And there's Alexa Chung.

MUSIC: Lights Out by Santigold

I'm now heading into the last show of the day

and it's Christopher Raeburn.

He's really known for reusing materials

in a really innovative way

and doing menswear and womenswear that is kind of useful.

- Aye, aye. - Friendly face. How you?

I'm very well.

As you can see, we're quiet before the storm.

Some highlights for me... This is something really cool.

These are made from original parachutes.

We deconstruct and rework and so we haven't even dyed this.

- This is the original colour. - Really?!

And then some really different pieces for us as well.

These are original MiG fighter jet suits deconstructed.

They are compression suits originally used by pilots.

They basically stop your body bursting.

I don't know if that's good for the BBC or not.

You know, that's the truth of it.

I do, just for you, want to show you one more piece

because I think you'll love it.

Yes, please. Ha-ha!

I love how everything that I'm trying on today

just sort of incidentally goes with my outfit.

- Minutes before the show. - I know.

Maybe you can model for us.

We are just waiting on two models.

Yeah, if one of them falls through, I'll just walk out there

and give everyone a laugh.

I could be your novelty casting.

There we go.

That is so cool. Shall I put the hood on as well?

SHE MUTTERS

Thank you, Susie.

INDISTINCT

Yeah, so it ends up a lot cleaner now.

MUSIC: Oblivion by Grimes

It's seven o'clock. The venue is looking pretty full.

I think we're going to be starting within the next five to ten minutes.

# See you on a dark night

# See you on a dark night

# See you on a dark night

# See you on a dark night

# See you on a dark night

# See you on a dark night

# See you on a dark night

# See you on a dark night

# See you on a dark night... #

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Thank you.

# See you on a dark night. #

Thank you!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, everybody. Thank you.

- Thank you, thank you, thank you. - How was it?

Amazing. Everything, I think, went well.

It looked good when it went out, so...

Yeah. Very, very, very happy.

It's been a really, really long day.

There's so many things that is hidden away from front of house, like things

we don't notice but they're super-important to the designer

because it's their months and months and months of hard work

being shown to critics, to buyers.

It determines their next six months of business, basically.

I thought I kind of had seen what it takes, you know,

to do a fashion show, but, no,

spending the day at length backstage definitely opens your eyes.