You go to London Fashion Week to see new ideas for how the 0.1 per cent might dress; you go to the VIP Frieze opening to see what they’ve actually bought.
And what a mixing pot it was at its 11am opening yesterday, as minor celebrities and avid collectors pooled into the country’s biggest art fair, in Regent’s Park, bashing their Birkins and poring over works to spruce very large walls. They were trigger happy; the Gagosian gallery corner was rumoured to have sold out within the hour.
There for an early peek was artist Wolfgang Tillmans, Nineties It-girl Tamara Beckwith, Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath and women-about-town Camille Charrière and Tish Weinstock. As for lunch, Dazed magazine founder Jefferson Hack and Frieze London Director Eva Langret hosted Tinie Tempah, The White Lotus’ Will Sharpe, and fashion designers Roksanda IlinÄiÄ, Henry Holland and Rejina Pyo to deliver some va-va-voom, before some charged to Dr Barbara Sturm’s skin care pop-up for pampering.
But the best people watching targets were the real art-buying cognoscenti. They were best satirised by Erwin Wurm’s sculpture ‘Hurry’, on show; a pale blue, Bottega Veneta shoulder bag with 8ft legs, sprinting through the fair. It was a mirror image of the frenzied £3,000-bag clutching, leather goods orgy who surrounded it.
Like a scene from the Lion King, guests arriving were trampled by the Hermès stampede. Birkins and Kellys nearly outnumbered paintings (these were favoured in black with silver hardware, but there were £75,000+ inky green crocodile, burgundy and canvas iterations, as well as mini navy lizard styles, as worn by Anu Hinduja, a member of the UK’s richest family). In every corner were the Parisian house’s Evelyne saddle bags, H-logo Constance bags and, for men, the HAC à dos backpack, worn crossbody. Then came the countless Goyard totes, which are enjoying something of a comeback; sequined Chanel 2.55 bags; a handful of Loewe’s Puzzle Minis and not a few Celine’s hefty Classique 16 briefcases, for good measure.
Unlike on fashion’s front rows - attendees this season were solely clad in Adidas Sambas - the shoe game was top tier. Collectors took the trending ballet pumps and raised them a Chanel pair of black toe capped flats (£790); Chloé’s webbed Nama trainers (£595) replaced Nike Air Forces, while Loewe’s logo-appliquéd suede runners (£595) came two-a-penny. That was only the flats; Prada puffer leather platforms (£900) and Gucci’s horsebit heels (£715) were worn, and unlike fashion editors who might opt for similar, theirs have not been gifted.
Also buzzing about were the art husbands, another Frieze breed of note: this year they arrived with diddy cappuccinos and ade rigueur uniform of navy blazers, white shirts, and dark denim or beige slacks. The twist was colourful hiking shoes they wore for baffling contrast; vivid rainbow Salomons were amongst the most offensive. But of course, they do not need their shoes to do the talking.
Get the Frieze look:
Hermès
Birkin 30 alligator handbag, £72,975, vestiairecollective.com
Chloé
Nama Sneakers, £436.56, cettire.com
Goyard
The Artois MM bag, purchase in store, 116 Mount St, London W1
Gucci
Slingbacks with horsebit, £ 715, gucci.com
