This year there has been a lot of recent fashion week related fuss in the media. This has mainly been over certain brands wishing to change the manner as to how they participate in fashion week. Some are calling for genderless shows, others are calling for non-seasonal ones.

The writer at London Fashion Week. Photo: Kurt Paris

The truth is the world has changed. A lot of companies are now much more global than they were 10 years ago. With that comes a whole new market with different climates and requirements. By next September, the traditional fashion week format might have changed completely or it may stay exactly the same with just a handful of brands opting to ‘go rogue’ so to speak.

I am sure I am not alone in hoping that come what may, fashion week will continue to exist. It feels as though the industry just wouldn’t be the same without it. It’s easy to look at pictures from international fashion weeks and imagine a super glamorous, party-filled trip. One might look at Instagram and see images de-picting beautiful, sunny days spent posing for said pictures at the city’s top spots while eating healthy, lovely, picturesque plates of food.

The real scenario is that the days are long and filled with frantic trotting around from one event to another. There is barely enough time to eat, let alone making nutritious choices and photographing them. Truth be told, there is a fair bit of pampering available should you have time to make use of it. Both in London and Milan, the press lounges have hair styling and make-up stations available where press card holders can book an appointment. My hair is slightly stubborn so I do always make it a point to schedule hair appointments at both fashion weeks.

The highlight in London was without a doubt the burberry show

Now that I have been covering fashion weeks for over four seasons, I do have some systems and patterns in place to tackle it head on

First of all, there’s my essentials list. My mobile is my top essential item – it holds my e-invites, e-mails from PR companies, my schedule, my notes, my taxi hailer, my route locator and my camera. Sadly enough, they still haven’t invented batteries to withstand the sort of abuse my phone goes through, so portable chargers become almost as important as the actual phone. Press card, credit cards, transport cards and any hard copy invites to the shows are the next items on the list. A lipstick or lip balm of some sort comes next and for the Winter season an umbrella.

Hogan

This season was actually the first one where the umbrella I took up with me did not break or get stolen and I did not need to buy another one. I know weather con-versations are awfully mundane but it was a really unlucky season. We had awful weather for most of the time in London but, of course, it turned bright and sunny the minute it ended. In Milan, it hadn’t rained in around a month-and-a-half but it rained incessantly for two out of the five days throughout fashion week.

The highlight of my LFW trip was, without a doubt, the Burberry show. There’s just something about that show – the setting, all the people watching outside, the catwalk in itself – it all feels a bit like a fairytale. I always get a bit anxious the day of that show, though.

It always rains and there’s always a lot of traffic. This season at least I was staying very close by at the Ampersand hotel, a charming boutique hotel in South Kensington. The drive, according to Google, was only five minutes long. Although I was actually free that morning, I somehow still managed to run late.

I had always intended calling an Uber to get me there (arriving at Burberry after a hurried 15-minute walk in the rain isn’t really my thing) but I planned on doing it in a relaxed-not-frantically-swearing-at-the-driver-who-couldn’t-stop-outside-the-hotel manner. When I was due to leave, I was still ringing the concierge for a pair of scissors to cut out tags.

Moschino in Milan. Photo: Kurt Paris

Other highlights throughout LFW included presentations by Phoebe English, being hosted at the Grooming Room’s press lounge, Markus Lupfer’s awesome collection and attending a talk by Gareth Pugh.

This year, Milan had a lovely, new experience for me. Through my work as a stylist in Malta I tend to spend a lot of time working backstage at fashion shows. I like being backstage, I like seeing details – details related to hair and make-up and details related to the clothes and accessories. I also enjoy the frantic energy backstage although mainly when I am actually part of it not just reporting.

Moschino backstage. Photo: Kurt Paris

I’ve been going backstage at LFW for four seasons to report on the hair looks done by Toni & Guy but had never yet done so in Milan. This season at MFW I was asked to report on the make-up looks done by Mac Cosmetics who just so happen to be my favourite make-up brand. To top off the excitement, I was backstage for some of my all-time favourite designers – Moschino (their fun and energetic take on fashion is clever and right up my alley), Etro (one of those heritage Italian brands that are synonymous with style) and Stella Jean (in my humble opinion, one of the most exciting designers at the moment).

Milan’s polished vibe is in direct contrast to the chaos often present outside the events. I almost got trampled on while trying to enter the Chiara Ferragni presentation and I had an invite. The Italians are bad at queuing but this was something else – young men and women pushing with all their might to get in while bouncers made an effort to keep the PR people safe.

Chiara herself was present, hence the fuss but still whoever the celebrity, I just can’t see the same scenario playing out in London. I did manage to get in finally. The Bulgari presentation is much more sedate and always a favourite. It is conducted in their hotel which is beautiful in itself and I love the way the bags and other accessories are presented.

Other highlights included the Casadei, Jimmy Choos and Giuseppe Zanotti shoe heaven presentations, the Alberta Ferretti and Elisabetta Franchi shows and Calvin Klein’s line of mannequins displaying the new collection.

Backstage at Etro. Photo: Kurt Paris. Markus Lupfer. Photo: Getty Images