Inside of the London Fashion Week, day 1

7pm

Fashion for relief at Somerset House

The 26th London Fashion Week started on a high note as Stratham-born supermodel Naomi Campbell hosted a celebrity-studded catwalk show - turned charity auction, Fashion For Relief at Somerset House on Thursday evening.

In collaboration with White ribbon Alliance and supported by Sarah Brown, the even attracted fashion, media and music moguls alike who reached deep into their pockets, raising £1million for the charity which works with the survivors of the Haitian earthquake.

The show opened with supermodels Kate Moss, Annabelle Neilson and Naomi Campbell paying tribute to late enfant-terrible of British fashion, Alexander McQueen.

While three models strolled down the runway in blue, digitally-printed dresses, the audience applauded both the supermodels and the lost genius.

Celebrities like Alice Dellal, Roisin Murphy, Denise Van Outen, and Pixie Geldof, watched closely by sitting in the front row and Pixie's dad, sir Bob Geldof, joined Campbell on the catwalk.

Little Britain’s David Walliams and James Corden, Kimberley Walsh, Nicola Roberts and Jo Wood were also among those who took part in the event.

After the show the auction was held during which the first dress by dame Vivienne Westwood reached a staggering £20,000 within less than 90 seconds while Damien Hirst’s painting sold for a mind-blowing £300,000.

So far, the event has raised an incredible £1 million but the final sum is expected to greatly exceed this amount as net-a-porter.com, the online luxury fashion boutique, will be selling many of the designs from March 15 with all the proceedings going to The White Ribbon Alliance.

Malgorzata Stankiewicz

Pictures: Quinn Palmer

11am

Caroline Charles

We managed to skip the queue for this show, much to a disgruntled Lady GaGa look alike's dismay!

It was clearly divided into five sections and music fitted accordingly.

The first section had a 1930s' aesthetic with drop waists, bubble shapes, skinny belts, fascinators and low rimmed hats.

The intervening sections were very mediocre. Hues of brown, green and tan dominated and were only made exciting by cute, vintage-inspired aviator caps.

The final section of evening wear was well crafted and gold embellishment on quality black well-cut fabric was attractive, if very predictable, true 'Christmas Day' outfits.

An otherwise conventional show closed with a sort of avant garde anti-wedding finale in which a model wore a black dress and bridesmaids subtle gold.

Despite the obvious last ditch attempt of this tapped on at the end to make the show exciting, these were the stand-out pieces.

Overall the first morning was not earth shattering but proved a nice warm up to the joys that the weekend will hopefully provide.

11.30am

Charlie Le Mindu

London Fashion Week started for me with an eagerly awaited, slightly off-schedule show from eccentric French hairdresser turned-designer Charlie Le Mindu.

The 23 year-old celebrity wig-maker did not fail to wow the fashion crowd with his occult-inspired A/W 2010 collection.

As the lights went down, the church bells begun to chime enigmatically and the first model emerged.

Wearing a cut-out black lace bodysuit, black lace gloves trimmed with hair resembling goatskin fur and a matching bag, her head was adorned by a crystal-encrusted crucifix.

After, more black lace-and-hair outfits followed and the highlights of the show included an oversized headpiece inspired by Foot Guard’s infamous bearskin hat, an open Fabergé egg and a ice-blue fox and hair cape and coat.

The jade-green and cobalt-blue make-up lifted the collection from sinister to futuristic.

Looking back at his past designs, Le Mindu’s latest show is definitely more refined and sophisticated, yet to call it understated or even, dare I say, wearable would be an undeniable overstatement.

But with eccentric dressers like Lady GaGa and La Roux being loyal fans to the brand, Le Mindu’s designs will most definitely hit the spotlight.

Malgorzata Stankiewicz