Anyone who has worked several full days at London Collections: Men or London Fashion Week will tell you just how exhausting it is. It may seem like fun going from fashion show to fashion show but trust me, it’s quite a headache and very stressful. Firstly you have to navigate your way through and wrestling with buses, tube, taxis and battle to rush your way along busy pavements. Venues can very easily be several miles away and sometimes even on the other side of the city (argh). Sometimes a show can start late due to delays in getting all the models prepped and ready to walk the catwalk. This can mean you will be even more stressed out trying to get to the next fashion show on time. It is painfully exhausting. If you are lucky enough to have your own car and driver to take you venue to venue, it makes a world of difference. Just around Christmas time last year, car brand MINI got in touch asking if they could loan me a car and driver for London Collections: Men. Not just for one show or one day but for ALL the shows and all four days of LC:M. I jumped at the chance, particularly as I have worked with MINI before and love their cars.
So every morning a silver MINI Clubman arrived at my home to pick me up and take me to all the shows, presentations and anywhere else I wanted to go to! Inside the car, the sat navigation system (see the photos above) was incredible. We never once got lost and could see precisely where we were at all times, ensuring I arrived at all the places I needed to go to, on time.
It’s incredibly spacious inside the car! I remember back in the day my childhood I remember my next door neighbour had a MINI and it was so much tinier inside and you barely had any space to move. Things have changed a lot since then – the MINI has grown in size. One other wonderful feature I enjoyed was how I could play music directly from my phone – wirelessly through Bluetooth! It was remarkably easy to set up. On average I had to get to around 7-8 events a day during LC:M – something I would never have managed without my car, and at the end of each long day I would be driven back to my home in west London. It was such a joy.
MINI recently collaborated with 8 Italian designers and VOGUE Italy to produce a capsule collection for Pitti Uomo, which is by far the most important platform within the fashion industry for menswear clothing and accessory collections. You can find out more information by visit MINI at Park Lane.
I want to thank MINI for their incredible generosity! Having the MINI Clubman made my experience during London Collections: Men truly delightful. It was a huge weight off my shoulders and made my life enormously easier. I took some of my friends from the shows to other venues with me and they absolutely loved it too. My driver (I had the same one for all four days) was such a gentleman. He was incredibly polite, always on time and we talked for hours every day. The experience could not have been any better.
