Hilary Alexander

You are cordially invited to the royal runway show! The Queen will host a public catwalk show next year at Buckingham Palace as part of the celebration for the 60th anniversary of her coronation. {Vogue UK} Kanye West wasn't around when Kim Kardashian cut her new bangs--but he usually plays a "huge part" in important styling decisions of that nature. {US Weekly} Nicki Minaj gets a major make-under for the April cover of Elle. {Elle} It's spring cleaning for Gwyneth Paltrow--the GOOPstress is selling some of her own (gently worn!) clothes and accessories for charity. Hopefully little Apple is still too young to understand what her mom's doing. {GOOP}

Milan and New York spent weeks arguing about the scheduling for fashion month come next September, and we subsequently spent weeks trying to follow along with all the arguments and compromises. While Milan and Paris ultimately “won” the day, and New York scheduled its week around the European weeks accordingly, London was sort of in the middle of the scuffle, getting squeezed time-wise and ignored in general. London has only recently become respected as a fashion city, and they’ve produced some world-class designers and labels like Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, and Gareth Pugh, who all subsequently left to show in Paris. Up-and-comers like Christopher Kane and Erdem are making international fashion news, but will they stay? How do London designers feel about being treated like fashion’s poor relation?

Fashionista contributor Long Nguyen is the co-founder/style director of Flaunt. LONDON--What’s a London experience without a little rain? And so it was that around 6pm last Sunday, a sunny afternoon surrendered to light drizzle as several black cars queued to drop just 55 guests off at Tom Ford’s showroom on a side street near Victoria Station for his intimate spring 2012 fashion show. Several male models clad in black three piece suits ushered them inside under enormous umbrellas, a scene more suitable for an embassy dinner than a runway show. Inside on the second floor showroom, the reception desk was temporarily converted into a bar where waiters served vodka tonic, champagne and still waters. “It has an air of the old Gucci shows with Domenico Desole greetings guests and waiters serving Vodka,” Hillary Alexander told me as we sipped on drinks and waited to enter the main room. In the late 90’s, in addition to a large bouquet of white flowers and a handwritten note to welcome us to Milano, some of us would get a bottle of vodka, or, on occasion, a 25 year-old bottle of whiskey from Mr. Ford at our hotel room. Then, the designer’s debauched sexy and slinky styles ushered a revolution in fashion. Now, we are in a different moment in time. In this digital age where images from fashion shows hold the attention span of a click to the next page, there is a need for designers to apply a different approach to how fashion can be seen and evaluated. But back to the show.

Author of "How to Walk in High Heels", Camilla has written for the UK Times, the Telegraph, Bazaar, and Time Style and Design in the US. She also covered the shows for Vogue UK online, reviewing all cities and hemlengths, and also assisted in the Galliano Studios. Attending fashion shows long before she was invited, London is where she started as a lowly Cinderella Fashionista. This season she is very excited to share some of her adventures with you. London is an idea factory. It's a mix of the wild, wacky, and unexpected and it feeds the entire industry. This is the city that breeds the original. You'll find a unique cast of characters on the runway as well as in the front row. Here are some key faces to look out for:

We heard from our friends over at Lucky that Hilary Alexander, the beloved and now “retired” fashion director of the Telegraph, was filming a fashion reality show called Behind the Seams. Since we’re here in London and have seen Hilary at practically every show this week, we decided to ask her about it. Hilary was exceptionally gracious and chatted with us for a few minutes before the Christopher Kane show this morning. So is she working on a reality show? The short answer: Nope! She’s working on two. And at least one may be available in the US. Read on for the details:

Tom Ford held another one of his top secret, super exclusive presentations in London last night. He unveiled his spring 2012 collection to a small group of press and while we were not among them, we already have a pretty good idea of who was there and what the clothes looked like. Sexy, maximalist and '90s Gucci-esque seem to have been the main themes. Here's what we've gathered from the likes of Cathy Horyn, Hamish Bowles, Rachel Zoe and more. more The Vibe: By the time Anna Wintour, Anna Dello Russo, Carine Roitfeld, Glenda Bailey, Harrods and co had taken their seats (promptly at 6pm) the select presentation had become a three-row show. --Lisa Armstrong, The Telegraph

Anja Rubik Got Married In A Mullet-Train Dress: The short-in-front, long-in-back dress is actually really gorgeous. Also love her ribbon-tie heels and the enormous crowns she and now-hubby Sasha Knezevic sport. {Vogue UK} See Images From Ricardo Tisci's Religion-Themed Issue of Visionaire: Since it's likely you won't want to shell out the $425 for the full issue, check out some photos here. It's a bit unusual (there's a banana wrapped in a ribbon that says "Jesus Styleite} Mulberry Makes Bank: Shoulda invested in an Alexa before it was cool. The Brit brand's stocks rose 526% last year and its worth jumped from to $267 million to $1.65 billion, making it the world's best-performing fashion house. {Telegraph}

Last night's CFDA Awards were a decidedly star-studded affair, what with Lady Gaga, Kanye West, Sofia Coppola, Jessica Alba, Gerard Butler, Naomi Watts, and host Anderson Cooper spending time on the stage. Cooper had to leave early because of "that Weiner thing," or so Diane von Furstenberg said, but otherwise the audience received plenty of face time with their star of choice--there were even a couple of moments when one could forget this was, you know, a fashion industry event. But only a couple.

Telegraph fashion director Hilary Alexander announced her semi-retirement in February via Twitter, but now she's revealed her replacement(s). Writer Lisa Armstrong, who regularly contributes to US Harper's Bazaar and British Vogue, will run the section next to Luke Leitch, who is currently deputy fashion editor of the Sunday Times.

Another year, another CFDA Awards. Tonight Diane von Furstenberg and Steven Kolb announced the nominations for 2011's awards. But before she began to read out the names, DvF told the crowd at her packed studio that the organization would be putting together an auction for the victims of the Japan natural disasters. "We're going to put together big packages. Designers, clients, suppliers--everyone is getting involved." As for the nominees and honorees, there were very few surprises, except for maybe one.

The Telegraph's Hilary Alexander interviewed Karl Lagerfeld as he prepared for Chanel's spring haute couture show this week. In addition to giving th

As fashion month fast approaches, it's a good time to get your Twitter organized accordingly. Over fashion month, Twitter has increasingly become the best place to get fashion news and updates about shows in real time. And more generally, it's one of our preferred methods for checking in on our favorite fashion folk and getting news fast. So we decided to put together a top ten list of the fashion folk who have Twitter down pat. We like making lists. This list is, of course, subjective, but we looked at the number of followers, the frequency with which they tweet, and how much their feeds reflect their personality.

There are many things I love about fashion, but my favorite part of the industry and best part of this job is the chance to meet designers. I have such admiration for these people who create gorgeous things, and when I get to meet them I often turn into a 12-year-old meeting Justin Bieber. I’ve giggled. Very professional. Often times the designers’ stories are better than any prepackaged reality shows out there. CNN’s Revealed aired today and featured Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. Theirs is an amazing love story and success story set in the incomparable backdrops of Milan and Portofino, Italy.

Fashion and sports don't often mix, but leave it to the World Cup to bring these two disparate worlds together. Louis Vuitton designed the carrying case for the World Cup Trophy. Dolce & Gabbana outfits the Italian national team. Soccer players are such lovely specimens that they often double as models (see David Beckham for Armani, Kaka for Armani, and Freddie Ljungberg for Calvin Klein to name a few). But the funniest instance of the worlds of fashion and football colliding happened yesterday, when the Daily Telegraph's Hilary Alexander essentially live-twittered the England-Germany match. The Brit paper's fashion director proved she is just as serious about football as she is about fashion. Well, almost.

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