Before I start to tell you how amazing it was to be backstage at LFW, I’ll tell you how I got the opportunity to go there in the first place! So, I saw a poster on Facebook for House of iKons LFW show and it said that they were looking for volunteers to help out front of house and backstage at their show in September. And of course, I had to jump at that opportunity even though I had absolutely no money to fund a trip to London at that moment. I sent them my CV and then waited not so patiently for a response. When they told me I could go I was super excited and I told myself I need to buckle down and work my ass off in order to pay for my spur of the moment decision.
After almost missing my 6.30am flight to Stansted Airport, I finally arrived in London on the Friday. I checked into my hotel, had a nap and decided to go for a walk as I wasn’t needed for set up till 5.30pm that evening. Upon arrival for set up I met the other volunteers who were there to help over the weekend. We met the management team, designers and models, then we got down to business building rails for the designer’s clothes. We were each assigned a designer to help fit models and hang clothes, I was assigned to the amazing designer Kiki De L. Vil.
The whole atmosphere with the models and everyone was totally different to what I’ve seen here in Ireland. There was also a lot of international models who came over from the states just for the show. When the fittings were over it was time to go home and get a good night’s sleep for the long day we had ahead of us.
The next day we all arrived for 9am sharp! The first show started at 3.30pm so final fittings and dress rehearsals were going on all morning. When it was time for the first show everything grew very intense as we all waited for it to start. There was a performance at the beginning of the show done by nine models to raise awareness for domestic violence, it was so powerful and I felt it really got the message across to people.
After this everything was a blur, models running around to their next designer and us volunteers stripping them down as they ran and passing them on to other volunteers to put them into their next outfit. The best way to describe it would be organised chaos! Then it was all over and we had to clean up and prepare for the next show at 6.30pm. Different designers brought out their clothes for the evening walk and after lunch we started to prepare the models in their first outfits again.
The whole production was very well put together, it was glamorous and elegant. It was not a show that you would want to miss and I know that there going to make it even bigger and better next year. House of iKons was truly an amazing experience and if anyone is interested in fashion they should seriously consider applying to be a volunteer!
This show wouldn’t have happened without the amazing CEO and founder, Savita Kaye and her beautiful heads of production Deborah Adelabu, Zuhaib Arif, Rohan Bonnick and Toya Styles
photos taken by Rachel Paige