PRESS UPDATE : VOGUE .. FEBRUARY 19TH 2019 ..

Joan Collins Is The Toast Of LFW

by ALICE NEWBOLD

Alice is the news editor of Vogue.co.uk

As fashion editors found their seats at Erdem’s autumn/winter 2019 show and browsed the works of art on the National Portrait Gallery walls, another guest was having slight difficulty navigating the lift system. Minutes ticked on and the 11am show did not start. Then, Dame Joan Collins waltzed in – shades on, flanked by team members and unflinching in attitude. Never mind the hold-up, that swagger was exactly what London Fashion Week was crying out for on a Monday morning.

To take in a front row view of the collection alongside Helen McCrory, Damian Lewis, Michelle Dockery and Alexa Chung, Collins plumped for a midnight-blue sequined floral dress, a cropped, collared black leather jacket and matching leather gloves, suede boots and a clutch squashed under her arm. Two pearls punctuated her earlobes. It was Hollywood Joan toned down for England.

Collins might have missed the show notes, but we like to think that she would have enjoyed the history lesson on Princess Donna Orietta Doria-Pamphilj-Landi, who wore the paintings from her Rome palazzo as kilts and sewed jewels into her clothes, when she was forced into hiding. While the Downton Abbey cast and theatre set, who religiously wear Erdem’s dresses, kept the style barometer of the front row at a safe level of "refined", the showbiz doyenne brought a pinch of the Italian royal's attitude behind the collection to the National Portrait Gallery. When in doubt, style it out, as Collins might say.