E for Events: British Fashion Awards 2014: Teeny-tiny Anna Wintour and funny-not-funny Jack Whitehall

I'm sure most of you are sleeping as I'm writing this. I really do want to consider myself as a super busy person - job, uni (shoutout to all my deadlines), events, people staying at my house, planning trips for the next couple of months and life after graduation, not to mention my social life that I don't even have anymore. And yet I still feel like I should be doing way more because if not now then when. It's just that it's only 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (The Beatles lied), 30ish days a month and 365 days a year. So with 1:26am on my alarm clock from IKEA, barely half an hour after submitting my essay on terrorism in events, I am writing this post on what happened two days ago.

We had British Fashion Awards in London on Monday, December 1st and it was my pleasure to help out with preparations for the gala. I got an email from British Fashion Council literally just three days before so I had to reschedule a few things but you just don't say no to BFC.

The Awards have been hosted by London Coliseum (home to the English National Opera) for the second time in a row and I must say that it was a perfect venue, very prestigious with striking architecture and interiors, exactly for this kind of events. The BFAs have previously been hosted by such venues as The Royal Albert Hall, V&A Museum, Royal Courts of Justice or The Savoy Hotel so this only seems like a confirmation of continuing this tradition of highly recognised venues. I got there half an hour before I was supposed to so I grabbed a quick Christmas latte at Costa and took a quick look around the set up. It was roughly 9am and the workers and producers along with BFC have already been there for hours. It always amazes me how they wake up at 5 in the morning, get to the venue at 7, rush around the place until the evening, then coordinate the event, go to the after party and THEN go home. Event day is usually very exhausting and fashion industry is all about the look so everything has to be per-fect.

We continued to work for nine hours, only with a quick trip to the nearest Pret. HRM of fashion Anna Wintour, who was to receive an Outstanding Achievement in Fashion Award poped up somewhere in the middle of the day probably to see how the preparation was going and to discuss how she was going to receive her award. At first we haven't seen her face but she is so characteristc that we immediately recognised her because of her hair and dressing style. Naomi Campbell also turned up for a rehearsal as she was presenting the Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator to W’s Edward Enninful. It’s weird because all your life you’re reading about those people and then when you meet them you’re kind of excited but when they’re actually standing there and doing whatever they’re supposed to do you just realise that they’re just people. Anna Wintour is so tiny that she almost has to look up when talking to people and Naomi Campbell looks way different than you usually see in pictures and seems very shy and insecure. And then Jack Whitehall, the host, comes up on stage for his rehearsal and starts receiting the earlier written jokes about how after the last Burberry campaign (Romeo Beckham starring) David Beckham has become the least known member of his family or how Harry Styles' presence at the Awards can get pregnant at least three women. Did you write it yourself Jack?

I really had great fun preparing the Awards, I've heard that the gala was great fun and fortunately everything went perfect. I met a lot of people from the industry, some fellow students or BFC interns. So a massive massive shoutout to the BFC and INCA Productions for holding this great event, I am truly grateful that you let me see all this and hoping to be a part of this team in the future.