Ashish’s show program said it better than I ever could:

“Never one for subtlety, our heroine is dressed to kill (literally) with a wardrobe that reads like the greatest hits of a holiday brochure. She has a dress to match every cocktail shaken in the Panorama Bar [of the HMS Queen Camilla), and after one daquiri too many, you may well find her draped across the grand piano, resplendent in a hibiscus flowered sequined wrap.

“Her taste reflects her destinations, like a Satnov in sequins she wears a map of Italy with more finesse than a Berlusconi babe and in Paris she glitters, like a living Tour Eiffel, or her halter ego the Mona Lisa, but with added lip gloss…

“On shore there’s scant difference, shredded t-shirts pay homage to her heroine Bo Derek, and as an ardent Facebook devotee, she’ll frequently post images to her envious friends back home in sequined souvenir t-shirts - not that she even cares if she sees them again.”

And there you have it.

In the five hours since I’ve arrived in London, I’ve gotten my hands on a copy of LOVE, (three actually, don’t know why), been proposed to by a cab driver, run into Br(It) Boy on the street, learned the BFC’s done away with standing room, blown a fuse at my hotel, been carded to buy beer (the drinking age is sixteen here), poked my head into Topshop and managed to make it to one show - Ashish.

And if that one show is any indication of what’s to come, London just doesn’t know what recession you’re talking about.

Ashish Gupta showed his Fall 09 collection at the Hippodrome in Leicester Square. Pre-show entertainment included an acrobat a la Cirque du Soleil while the show itself featured a fantastic performance by V.V. Brown, the up-and-coming British singer who’s just been shot for Vogue UK’s May issue.

And the clothes? Well, they were sequined. I don’t mean sequin skirts or sequin tops, I’m talking all sequins. He showed sequined jeans, sequined gloves, a sequined hoodie, sequined Nordic print sweaters, sequined zebras - it was more sparkle than I’ve ever seen, and you should consider that I did recently attend Richie Rich. There were also pompoms and leopard print tights and the American flag and crowns of thorns.

It was actually the perfect thing to jerk me awake post-red-eye.

PS Tune in over the weekend for more London Fashion Week!