PARTY GIRL'S GUIDE TO FW AFTERS

Ever since I was a little girl, I knew I wanted to be on the guest list. Alongside my longstanding fellowship with the Fashion Girl Society is a lifetime membership of the Party Girl Association. The party pages of my favourite glossies showed me a world of nocturnal soirées, documented in flashbulb photos. I imagined what it would be like to actually be one of the Party People – an attendee at a party so exclusive, rubbing shoulders with the talent and faces defining the zeitgeist, sipping champagne while looking like a supermodel and making the sort of iconic small talk Andy Warhol documented in his diaries.

Nearly a decade later, I’ve been to more fashion week parties than I can recall. This isn’t simply because of some ungodly level of intoxication – every fashion week, multiple nights back to back are stacked with more parties than seem possible, with countless brands trying to tap into that nighttime magic.

But what does it take to make it behind the rope, past the clipboard-wielding PR and into the hallowed halls of a properly glamorous, star-studded LFW soirée? Let the pros tell you how. Set an intention for the night Let’s get one thing straight: fashion week parties are usually less about dancing or outright fun and more about a dreaded third thing: networking. It’s the industry’s meeting point, a milieu of faces, names and roles. So, is there someone you want to meet, a brand you want to make yourself known to, or are you just there to rinse the free bar? Whatever it is, let your intention inform your actions. Or, as Mahoro Seward, British Vogue editor and LFW FROW royalty, puts it: “Being the person who turns up to every party is not chic, so pick what best serves you.” Pull a look This should be self-evident … it is fashion. Writer and lynchpin of the LFW scene Jack Guinness’s best advice is: “Whatever the brand gives you to wear.”

However, if you’ve not yet made it to the upper echelons of LFW status, “I used to dress a little more jazzy and camp. Now a black suit and boots seem to do the job. Glasses on if I’m feeling a little fruity.” Emma Winder, the internet’s favourite it girl, with a penchant for all things 70s and the dance moves to match, sticks to her staple idiosyncratic swag: “A vintage fitted suit and accessories that really do the talking.” My tip: dress like the centre of attention and you will become it. Guest list is a state of mind I may now be known on sight at every fête at LFW, but every true party girl first got her foot in the door based on the three Cs: cockiness, confidence and conviction.

“My best tip is LIE,” says Jack. Mahoro seconds this: “Bulldoze your blag so hard that you convince the PR it’s a clerical error.” Mind your Ps and Qs When I moved to London, I didn’t know a single person. One thing I did know was how to say please and thank you. One victim of my charm is Max Harrison, aka Mayfair Max, doorman of infamy and the person to know if you want to get in anywhere that matters. “Be gracious, be patient, and don’t argue the toss,” he advises. “Know someone who is actually important inside if you’re going to try and be difficult. Sorry!” It’s a marathon, not a sprint Mahoro’s sage advice: “Hydration, electroly tes, and not starting on Martinis.”

“Don’t be the last one leaving the party,” Mina Galán, DJ, producer and fellow professional party girl, tells me, looking me in the eye and laughing. A classic example of do what we say, not what we do. Have fun. Recounting our favourite LFW memories, I narrow mine down to Harry Styles knocking over my cocktail years ago and bringing me a new one himself (those northern boys!), or lying in a bathtub of champagne in the Chiltern x Vogue party bathroom just months ago, wearing a lace-up SOSSKYN dress. Host, DJ and perennial it girl Miss Jason recalls a Nasir Mazhar party at Metropolis many moons ago with models, strippers and rappers. “It was like Sin City, and I leaned all the way in!”

Jack recalls a night so iconic that all others pale in comparison. “I ended up disappearing with Lindsay Lohan and trying on Elizabeth Taylor’s coats and … well, I can’t say what happened next, but I think she covered most of it in her big Oprah interview.” And if none of the above works, one well-seasoned insider gave me a really cheeky tip. Find a willing friend, change their contact in your phone to the name of the exec PR in charge of the guest list, then fake texts and phone calls on the door to trick their foot soldiers. Where there is a will – and enough audacity – there is always a way.