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London Fashion Week found itself in a bit of a designer sandwich this year, after Marc Jacobs moved his show to the last day of New York Fashion Week (causing a lot of models to miss the first day in London) and after Gucci ordered its models to fly out to Milan a day early for fittings (meaning a lot of models missed the last day.) Granted, Marc Jacobs had the excuse of Hurricane Irene, but Gucci's Frida Giannini wanted a pre-casting on Saturday, a real casting on Sunday, and then fittings right before the show on Monday. Three whole days of playing model monopoly.
Premier Model Management founder Carole White tells the Telegraph, "We're not just talking about one or two big girls. Jacobs had numerous models holding on options right up until the day of his show meaning they all stayed in New York just in case they got cast." She then adds, "Gucci demanded that girls fly to Milan on Saturday to meet Frida to see if she would consider them for her show, which meant Saturday got trashed."
A good handful of London's designers felt the strain from the mode tug o' war, including Erdem, Temperley London, and Louise Gray. Designer Todd Lynn was also affected, and one of the brand's staffers said, "We lost 10 out of 19 girls. We were getting calls from agents at 1.30am on the morning of the show pulling girls we had just fitted, while other girls just didn't turn up to fittings at all after they'd been confirmed. When we called their agencies to find out where they were, we were told sorry, they've gone to Milan." Ciao!
· LFW crisis after Gucci summon models to Milan [Telegraph UK]