So last week I was lucky enough to be whisked off to attend Oslo Fashion Week for three days and I absolutely loved it! We arrived late Monday night and it was pretty much straight to bed once checked into the lovely Christiana Teater hotel (I got a suite which I was definitely not chill at all in the slightest about... eeeek!). After indulging in the breakfast buffet (a definite hotel highlight), we hot footed it down to the Oslo Runway hub to check in and pick up press passes etc. before heading to our first presentation on the agenda - Catherine Hammel. What a beaut of a start to the SS19 collections - a huge open space transformed into an apartment setting filled with various sets/ scenes from a woman's everyday life, and showcasing more dreamy tulle garms than you can shake a stick at. The collection was called 'Twenty One Steps' in celebration of 21 years of the brand and taking inspiration from their archives, the collection was based around Catherine's signature pieces throughout the years. Definitely one of my seasonal highlights I must say. The following show was Epilouge and it was another great parade of beautiful pieces, this time texture, shape and structure playing a big part.
The next presentation on our agenda involved being driven up to the mountains to the Ekeberg park for Cala Jade. It was such a beautiful setting and then we got a little tour of the sculpture park afterwards too which was amazing! The final two shows on our first day were the beautiful By Timo - set in Oslo Ladegård, basically like the ground of a stately home with picnic filled baskets for all on the Frow no less, and Iben - a collection I could pop straight into my wardrobe and wear it all! My outfit for the first day is below - this dreamy burnt orange silky maxi skirt from Stories and a vintage check blazer, complete with my trusty Shrimps baby.
On day two I wore my beloved realisation Par leopard skirt with a white shirt tied up, my Amazon find ruffle sandals and my hope bag by one of my fave new indie brands Paradise Row. We had another day full of shows lined up - beginning with Moire which was full of separates in lovely fabrics and colours, followed by Line Of Oslo featuring some beaut Summer dresses that were right up my street, and then one of my season faves - Pia Tjelta - located in the middle of a shopping street and complete with a vintage Wes-esque bus to unload the models onto the catwalk. It was an amazing show all about the strength of women and featured girls of all ages which was very cute!
Over the course of the three days we were there we saw all 11 shows on schedule and they were all so great! I definitely had some personal faves though and ones that stuck in my head - Catherine Hammel was a dreamy start with all of the gorgeous tulle pieces, Cala Jade set in the middle of a park was such a beaut presentation, By Timo was in a beautiful setting, I was supplied with cherries and fizz and I basically wanted all of the dresses, Pia Tjelta's was a show of feminism and a celebration of females which I obviously loved and Iben was just so wearable and such a strong collection of colours - bravo Oslo! Before we jumped on our flight home we had a bit of time to explore the city and headed down to the harbour which was lovely, albeit very windy! A great end to our trip.
Honestly, I feel so grateful to have been taken on this trip and it was probably my blogging career highlight so far. I was front row for every single show with my name on the seat and I’m not going to pretend that’s normal for me and I wasn’t massively excited about it! When I was younger, when asked, I’d say my dream job was to just attend fashion shows and make mood boards and well, if we can call Instagram a mood-board then I was living my dream indeed - an absolute pinch me few days for sure! Oslo is such a beautiful city too - so clean and calming - and I’ll definitely be returning in the future. Big love to B the agency and Oslo Runway for an amazing few days. Oslo is firmly on the fashion week map and I can’t wait to see what they have in store next season. Rachael X
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