Last week Emma and I managed to get up to Earls Court for our first visit to Graduate Fashion Week – where the cream of British fashion and textile degree course students show their collections with the hope of being snapped up and starting their dream career in the industry.

It was here, last year, that Grace Melville showed her 'David Attenborough' sweater dress and got snapped up by Rowan. Now she is already on her second studio collection for them.

(yes this pic is a little blurry, I just wanted to prove we really were there. And that I need a new camera to capture all of the glamorous shindigs!)



We saw some amazing knitwear in the exhibition hall and had invitations to Kingston's catwalk show, which was fantastic – as professional as any of those we saw at London Fashion Week. My favourite designs were the one's pictured below by David Stoneman-Merret, whose chunky, sparkly men's knits included an all-in-one green diamond pyjama thing, a HUGE black sparkling floor length cardigan and a pink and white flowery jumper with sequins. And of course the crazy sock/scarf things they had on their heads.



We failed a bit on the celeb-spotting (Vivienne Westwood had just left when we arrived) but we did bump into Hilary Alexander, fashion writer and director of The Telegraph, in the press area, who seemed to think she might know us. We smiled winningly back. And my exciting 'spot' was seeing Susie Bubble of brilliant style blog http://stylebubble.typepad.com.

She looked up and smiled when I nudged Emma. Note: must be cooler next time.

I love going to these things, surrounded people who are passionate and inspired (and inspiring!) about design, textiles, knitwear, fashion and supporting homegrown talent. We will do a proper review of the exciting new crop of knitwear designers to keep an eye on in our September issue, so don't forget to check that out when it comes out!