Today is the start of London Collections: Men. It's the fifth time that London has presented a stand-alone fashion week for men, cramming almost 70 shows and presentations into three days. It isn't just about showing what British designers have to offer, though. This time around, Italian label Moschino (helmed by the American designer Jeremy Scott) has elected to show its menswear in London, and Scott joins fellow American Tom Ford and a welter of homegrown names including Burberry Prorsum and Alexander McQueen. The visibility of London's menswear showcase is fast rising.

What is it that makes London menswear so appealing? Its comparative youth, for a start: Milan and Paris have been showing menswear separately from their women's collections for more than 15 years. The status as a fresh newcomer of London Collections: Men is mirrored in its designers, whose ages hover somewhere around 30.

JW Anderson, newly appointed head of Loewe, reaches that milestone this year; new talent Craig Green, who shows his hotly anticipated show tomorrow, is 27; while the inaugural winner of the BFC/GQ Designer Fashion Fund, Christopher Shannon, is only 33.

Compare that with the stalwarts of Milan and Paris: Giorgio Armani is 79, Dries Van Noten 56. Even Hedi Slimane – a champion of youth fashion – clocks in at 45. London menswear is showing the world something new.

That newness is vital. "Fashion is reaction. It's about what people are talking about, what happened last season," says the designer Jonathan Saunders. "If you're going to make a man go into the shops and buy something new every season, then newness is important."

JW Anderson agrees … in a way. "You need to make sure 35 per cent of the collection is something you're not comfortable with," he says. "If you're comfortable, it's stale."

Stale is a word that is often applicable to menswear – where, even at designer level, there is reliance on the tailored suit and casual basics including chinos, cotton shirts and sweaters, which demand little or no design input.

If designers in Milan and Paris can be relied upon to deliver their aesthetic tropes (Armani's relaxed, neutral tailoring, Cavalli's glitzy look), then London has gained a reputation for bucking trends and spearheading new movements – the resurgence of luxury sportswear, for example, which can be traced back to designer Kim Jones 10 years ago. Jones is now men's style director of Louis Vuitton.

The presence of those emerging young designers has enticed more established brands to show in London. Both McQueen and Burberry previously presented their clothes in staid Milan, before joining the London showcase last year in January and in June, respectively.

What is London's pull for those mega-brands? It's the same as it is for press and buyers – the latter increasing 30 per cent year on year, and from 33 countries: the promise of something fresh and exciting.

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Uzo Aduba likes to reflect her "strong" personality with her clothing away from the camera.

Uzo Aduba likens red carpet events to dressing up for prom.

The Orange Is the New Black actress looks far from glamorous in her role as Suzanne 'Crazy Eyes' Warren, wearing prison overalls and sporting bags under her eyes.

In real life Uzo relishes the chance to doll herself up, and appreciates the hard work put into making her character look realistic for the circumstances.

"I like strong anything: strong choices, strong voices, strong make-up, strong looks, strong women. You know what I mean?" she revealed to Refinery29. "I like strong plus a noun - that's my thing. Red carpets are an opportunity to really dress up. It's like being able to go to the prom all over again.

"I like the collaboration [on the show] because there are so many different departments [collaborating], making the stuff. That is what theatre is. That's what Orange is. It takes a lot of us to come together and make a good thing."

Another iconic thing about her alter ego in the hit TV series is her Bantu knots hairstyle, which Rihanna recently replicated for the iHeartRadio Music Awards 2014 last month. Uzo loves the 'do herself, but not the effect it has away from the camera.

"I used to wear my hair in the Bantu knots. I was doing a show right before Orange, and I was wearing my hair like that and then I had the idea to wear it to the audition. I thought that since the show is set in prison anyway, the knots work, and I didn't think anything of it," she recalled. "I used to wear them [in real life], but I had to stop wearing them because that attention as Suzanne made me want to stop. I take them out when we finish shooting."

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The Fall II/ Holiday Los Angeles Fashion Market will take place from Sunday - Wednesday, June, 8-11, 2014, at the California Market Center (CMC) on 9th and Main in Downtown LA. Show hours are from 9a-6p daily.

Although showrooms will be open starting Sunday of LA Fashion Market, SELECT Contemporary Tradeshow and TRANSIT Footwear & Accessories Show will run Monday - Wednesday, June 9-11, 2014. Show hours for SELECT will be 9a-5p, Monday and Tuesday, and 9A-4P on Wednesday. Hours for TRANSIT will be 10a-5p, Monday and Tuesday, and 10A-4p on Wednesday.

In addition to the well-established resources already at the CMC, many new lines and showrooms will be debuting this Market. These include: Sandra and Minnie, Red Wagon Baby, La Chic Embroidered Designs, Zigi Soho, London Trash, Ken Abbott, Emperia Handbags, Billy Narvida, YNTJ, Woon Sik Kim, Cooper 9, William Kim, Amethyst, Belford, Hail3y:23, Jana Sweaters, Halladay, Native Shoes, W5 Concepts, Klist, Sweet Rain Apparel, Skylton, Moss/Jang, Proper Brands Showroom, One Ten Sales, RadYo!, The Pothead Diaries, Wild Rose Apparel, Cool-G, Mila Designs and many more.

"As a former model, I have many memories of coming to the CMC to do showroom fittings and to meet clients," says Dustin Moss of new showroom Sweet Rain Apparel. "This was where I began working in LA, so it was a comfortable fit to want to return here to continue the process for the next generation. I'm looking forward to seeing how the LA Market has progressed over the years and am extremely happy to be part of the CMC."

Sweet Rain Apparel is just one of the several new showrooms opening on 5B. Showrooms featuring some of the best Young Contemporary lines in LA continue to emerge and transform 5B into a destination for this highly sought after category. Skylton, a denim line from France, who took part in last Market's Fre(n)sh Fashion Show, has opened their first showroom at the CMC. Also on 5B, Young Contemporary lines such as W5Concepts and KList represented by Karyn Kim have made the CMC their new home.

Running in conjunction with LA Fashion Market, SELECT Contemporary Tradeshow and TRANSIT Footwear & Accessories Show will introduce a wide variety of exhibiting brands. Monday - Wednesday, June 9-11, SELECT will be held in the Fashion Theater located in the Main Lobby, while TRANSIT will be held on the 13th Floor Penthouse.

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More than 85 childrenswear, menswear and womenswear designers showcased their latest collections at the just held seventh edition of Fiji Fashion Week.

The catwalk event kicked off with an exclusive Resort Wear Design Show which featured haute couture resort collections from nearly 13 designers. Local design name Sonam Sapra opened the night with her print heavy Intimate Fiji collection, inspired from the beautiful third largest Fijian island Taveuni.

In addition to Sapra’s nature influenced line, other names like Sarah Jane, Robert Verebasaga and Mere Shuster, Hupfield Hoarder, Lana Smith, Hanna Hering and Benjamin Schetrit and Failepou Peni also displayed their latest resortwear looks.

Famous home grown talent Robert Kennedy presented his Salusalu collection under the event’s Established Designers’ showcase. Infused with tropical vibes and 1960-esque Italian styles, the range included hooded caftans, capes and little dresses for women and stylish shirts for men.

Designer Michael Mausio’s Essence of the Pacific range featured an extremely elegant minimalistic line, comprised of tie-and-dye brown jeans and couture dresses, while fashion talent Rachel Fairfax staged a paradise like catwalk show with a muted and bold toned beach printed collection at the glamorous soiree.

The well-known clothing label Mena displayed its latest Pacific-inspired Return to Paradise line at the glitzy fashion event. Decorated with Tapa prints and flowers, the collection featured dresses with asymmetrical necklines, tunics, midis and sheaths for women as well as the traditional island printed Bula shirts for men.

Apart from the style studded runway parades, the Fijian soiree also hosted muumuu (loose Hawaiian dress), sulu jaba (Pacific girl’s or women’s clothing), and Indian women’s traditional attires salwar kameez and saree design competitions.

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First came the glass condo towers, then came Whole Foods, and now here’s Christian Dior.

On Wednesday night, Dior hosted more than 900 guests at the Brooklyn Navy Yard for its 2015 cruise collection. Some came by car, and many arrived, at the house’s recommendation, by free ferries emblazoned with the Dior logo and free champagne. Stars came too, with Rihanna, Marion Cotillard and Maggie Gyllenhaal all in the front row.

“My driver came to pick me up like an hour and a half early,” said Gyllenhaal. “And then I was like, wait, it’s at the Navy Yard? We can leave in an hour.”

She was fairly certain she hadn’t been to a resort show before. “I don’t really know the ins and outs of the fashion season,” she said.

Who could blame her, because what is a fashion season anyway? A Dior show ... in Brooklyn ... in May? In the ever-widening fashion calendar, the cruise runway show has become very important to the house. And it was especially important to show in New York, with a legion of editors and buyers in town in an already supersize week that included the Costume Institute gala and the Frieze art fair.

This was Dior’s biggest resort show ever (by attendance, though the collection had a whopping 66 looks too). It has hosted previous resort shows in New York — in office buildings and at Guastavino’s restaurant — but those shows never had more than 200 attendees. Last year, Dior staged a runway resort show in Monaco (attendance: about 600).

For the biggest houses, this is becoming a trend. Louis Vuitton will host its first-ever runway cruise show next week at the Prince’s Palace of Monaco. And Chanel — a rival, which probably has something to do with Dior’s interest in these incipient spring runway extravaganzas — is showing in Dubai, UAE, next week, and has previously held resort shows in far-flung locations such as Singapore and Venice.

“Everybody is looking at the cruise collection as important as the summer collection,” Sidney Toledano, the chief executive of Dior, said in an interview from the house’s boutique on 57th Street. “Maybe even more important in terms of buying.”

Dior flew in hundreds of people, Toledano said. That included putting the designer, Raf Simons, up at the Pierre, and flying in his studio, the atelier, a visual merchandising team, international executives, buyers and merchants.

Inside the Duggal Greenhouse at the Navy Yard, the set featured an enormous mirrored wall overlooking a stage that was elevated about 16 feet to provide a view of the somewhat distant Midtown skyline.

“I like the idea of having the view of Manhattan instead of the other way around,” Simons said after the show. And the river. He really wanted the river.

“Raf likes flowers and he likes water,” Toledano said.

For Simons’ first couture show in July 2012, 1 million fresh flowers were ordered to line the walls. In the documentary Dior and I, the Vogue editor Anna Wintour tells Simons, upon entering that show: “I guess you didn’t have any budget issues.”

The same applied here. Male models dressed in Dior sailor uniforms greeted guests, armed with never-ending champagne and orange juice. Before the show, a throng of editors and clients drank and smoked outside, surrounded by a whiff of foul odour that quite possibly came from the East River. (Welcome to New York!) The ferries, which left Manhattan every 10 minutes, made for a much easier commute than the traffic-jammed headache that was the February Alexander Wang show, which was also here. Later on Wednesday night, Dior hosted a four-hour open-bar party at the Top of the Standard.

One of the reasons for the free-spending: resort sells.

“We will deliver at the end of October, you see, and we will be selling this collection up until May,” Toledano said. “It’s long. The summer collection will be presented in early October. The time is shorter.”

In other words, these clothes will be on the floors longer. And the collection was appropriately commercial, especially by Simons’ standards.

“Resort collections are obviously where you take care of the reality aspect of fashion,” Simons said. “I like to see my clothes worn.”

It will also provide fodder for a relatively fallow period for magazines.

“This is a costly endeavour,” the Marie Claire creative director Nina Garcia said at the show. “Not every designer can afford to put on a show like this, but for editors, it’s important. We have three months in November, December and January when we need to work with these resort clothes. For those three months, this is where our inspiration is going to come from.”

The customer wants it, and the giant Dior cruise show, wherever it is next year, is here to stay.

“The customer is demanding it,” Toledano said. “People want more fashion, and they want more newness.”

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IT'S Sydney Fashion Week.

And there's plenty going on, especially backstage.

Models are getting their hair and makeup done, fashion designers are frantically running around and a crowd is waiting.

Erin Zackeresen was lucky enough to be right in the middle of all the chaos.

The Rockhampton woman was a hair stylist at Sydney Fashion Week earlier this month, styling the hair of models from around the world.

Erin got the chance to work at fashion week after competing for a spot on the Redken styling team in Brisbane.

It wasn't only Erin who had the opportunity of a lifetime, her boss, Peter Tickner of Studio Pedro, was styling the hair of models with the GHD team.

Peter even got the chance to style the hair of Victoria's Secret model Alessandra Ambrosio.

The entire experience was one Erin and Peter will remember, getting the chance to mingle with hair directors from across the country.

Erin said they got to work on hair styles from blow drying to loose curls and pony tails, but getting the style right is harder than it sounds.

"It sounds like easy styles to do, but they are very particular when getting the finish look right," Erin said.

"You only really get two hours to do the hair of 30 models and they need the exact same hairstyle for the show they're in."

While Erin's experience at fashion week was unbelievable, the hairdresser said she's happy to be working in Rockhampton.

"(Fashion week) is a good opportunity too, it's good fun," Erin said.

"(But) I love working in Rockhampton at Pedro's Studio, and having the relationship with my clients."

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