The fashion industry is a crazy crazy thing. Whilst we’re barely recovering from a harsh winter and finally seeing the first glimmer of spring, us fashion folks are already looking forward to next winter. In terms of clothes, we’re pretty much bored by the SS11 clothes by now, after having seen and worked with them for about 6 months, although they’re only just hitting the stores now.

Tomorrow London Fashion Week finally kicks off again, which means the fashionista’s of the world will be holding court in and around Somerset House for the next 5 days, proudly displaying their latest (SS11) purchases and individual styles. Hanging around the tents is almost just as fun as seeing the shows, so I’ll be doing my fair share of people-watching (and reporting here, of course).

Although it all kicks off tomorrow, preparations started a long time ago, beginning with the requesting of the tickets, one of the most stressful parts of London Fashion Week. In the past few days, the postman and countless couriers and interns have dropped off a rather insane amount of tickets, so I finally get a bit of an overview as to what I’ll be doing this week. It’ll be a busy one, but you’ll be able to follow me every step of the way on here (I’m trying blogging on the go, technology permitting) and on twitter of course.

This will be my 8th season, but I think this will be my best one so far. Through my blog I’ve gotten to know so many wonderful people – bloggers, journalists, stylists, and PR’s – so LFW will be the place where all of us get to reconnect over our shared passion. After this many seasons, one of my favourite things about fashion week is still just getting the invites: the creativity that goes into them is often a thing of beauty. When you get dozens of invitations, it’s hard to stand out, but some designers really go out of their way by adding their own little twist to them. Some of them give a little hint what the collection will be about, be it a print or a theme, others are much more abstract and will leave us guessing until the actual show has started. Here’s a selection of some great ones so far – and there’s still more coming…

Richard Nicoll‘s butterfly invite is my favourite so far, looks simple at first sight, but is much more than that. Unfortunately a camera can’t always capture that. House Of Holland‘s bingo slip is also pretty genius, especially once I figured out that the numbers weren’t random, but signifying the date, the season, the PR’s phone number, etc… Have a look!