LC:M AW15 or the menswear fashion week reflections

As the menswear AW15 season came to an end with the final show in Paris, all the boys headed home on trains and planes without enough leg room, photographers rested sore hands and eyes, bloggers took a break from an #AW15 tag-flooded Instagram and everyone suddenly became very busy catching up on sleep.

The London part of the AW15 season, London Collections: Men, was a 4-day event with countless presentations and shows from such well-known brands and designers as Burberry, Alexander McQueen and Moschino, just to name a few. The area around the main venues in Central London was buzzing with photographers, bloggers, media and, of course, tons of fashionable people.

London Collections: Men, or LC:M, has grown a lot ever since its first season in the summer 2012. What used to be an afternoon or a day with a couple of menswear shows during the London Fashion Week (LFW) is now a worldwide menswear fashion feast, attracting such giants as Burberry and Alexander McQueen to come back to London to present their menswear collections.

London Fashion Week has always had a huge following and attention from both the media and fashion lovers. However, there is a certain excitement when it comes to LC:M - the raw and fresh creativity of something that has not yet grown into a massive event restricted by high expectations. Every season there is lots of experimentation (see image from the Agi & Sam show backstage below) and exploration in terms of presenting the collections. At the same time, both established and emerging brands show maturity and high quality in their work.
 

When compared to London Fashion Week, the proportions are much smaller - yet it works to LC:M’s advantage at the moment. There seems to be less pretentiousness even in street style fashion, as, unlike sometimes during the London Fashion Week, a lot of the clothes worn by the LC:M attendees can actually be worn on a regular day in any London street. With the menswear market growing as rapidly as it has been over the past few years, and men feeling more and more experimental with their appearance, a couple of seasons in LC:M and we might be seeing a similar colour, pattern and shape crazy street style as LFW.
 

Working as a backstage photographer I have seen LC:M grow enormously. Despite the sheer number of people working backstage (meaning more crawling around for a good shot, unintended pushing and thousands of ‘sorry’s), there tends to be the same friendly core of people helping each other get through the very exciting, yet also very tiring, stressful and sleepless days and nights.
 

Models are no exception - contrary to the glamorous model life myths, a typical model’s day during the fashion week would more likely consist of early morning call times for shows, castings, fittings and hours of waiting in between, rather than constant partying (although parties are also an essential part of any fashion week) . Preparing each show on the day takes hours and hours of work by a huge group of talented and devoted people, and that isn’t even counting the months of preparations putting the collections together.

Photographing backstage can be a real personal and physical strength test, but catching moments of the madness and energy behind-the-scenes is always very inspiring and motivating.