4:15 Exit Covent Garden Tube Station, march under Chinese New Year lanterns, just miss marching across the Bafta’s red carpet and arrive safe and sound backstage in the Russell Street Flower Cellars.

4:30 It’s the Meadham Kirchhoff show, one of the most anticpated of the week, and Bumble and bumble hair stylist James Pecis is hard at work. The girls will have slicked back hair on top, poufy fluffs on the bottom, and Nasir Mazhar crowns on top (he’s Gaga’s favorite milliner).

4:45. MAC’s taking care of make-up, including various shades of glitter everywhere from the eyes and the hands.

4:57 Nicholas Kirkwood’s made flat shoes for the show. They’re brown, worn-in brogues, contrasting with the armfuls of colorful bangles every model’s wearing.

5: 13 Meet Ali Carr. She’s Canadian, it’s her first season, and she loves London. (She loved New York, too, but who wouldn’t if they booked Marc on their first shot?) Her hands sparkle and she’s told she’ll wear a “thousand pound” cape over her outfit.

5:27 James, the hairstylist, takes out the E-shaped pieces of cardboard he used to shape the models’ sharp ringlets, and almost every girl’s covered with a veil or mantilla. Shoes are laced, photos are snapped, everyone’s lined up, and I take my seat.

5:49 The show begins.

6:00 The crowd’s surprised. These aren’t the clothes Meadham Kirchhoff’s famous for–ripped jeans, gold-dipped jackets–but colorful slips, textured cardigans topped off with seriously funky styling. An editor from Bazaar UK mouths, “I love it,” across the aisle, while someone else visibly holds in laughter.

Backstage, we loved the clothes, but on the runway, they’re almost impossible to see. Regardless of whether you love or hate Ed Meadham and Ben Kirchhoff’s new direction, their spectacle was fun.