Report by Disneyrollergirl

“The first fashion-show season with Twitter in full force is like Gossip Girl on crack!” So reads designer Henry Holland’s (henryholland) Twitter, summing up the latest obsession to take LFW in less than 140 characters. If we’re not tweeting about spotting Donatella Versace/Joan Collins/Martine McCutcheon, we’re tweeting mini trend reports as they happen: “RoboCop shoulders at Todd Lynn!”; “Polka-dot shoes at Luella!” in a barrage of sartorial sound bites. But what’s the official code of conduct at the shows? Is it offensive to a designer if we watch-n-tweet or is it a compliment that we can’t wait? “I tweet before the shows but not during,” says Stacey Duguid, Executive Fashion Editor of Elle.

“A designer has spent four months of preparation for a seven-to-eight minute show and people spend four minutes tweeting? It’s rude. Also, you haven’t really formed an opinion about the show, so it’s competitive tweeting. It becomes a big tweet-off!”

For some fashion editors, it’s all for the readers. “We’re about fashion as it happens and opening up our world, so it’s important that we tweet,” says Hattie Brett, Web Editor of Grazia Daily (Grazia_Live). “But I would only tweet in a show if something unmissable happens.” What ’s ‘unmissable’? A model tumble? A seizure? “I tweeted a TwitPic during Danielle Scutt’s show,” admits Duguid, “because the hair was so incredible.”
The buyers are brandishing their BlackBerrys, too, with online stores leading the charge. Net-A-Porter (Luxury_Fashion) tweets at almost every show. But not East End fashion boutique Start. Owner Brix Smith-Start (Brixsmithstart) says, “I focus on the energy of the moment.”

To see fashion pack tweets from the London shows, go to londonfashionwk on Twitter.

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