The Look Show : your high street loves you

I was very lucky to win tickets to the Look Show, held at the new Westfield Shopping Centre in Stratford, last week. My tickets, courtesy of Warehouse, meant that I was also able to treat my sister to a peek of the high street's current and future offerings. The show opened with Sarah Harding, of Girls Aloud, modelling the Shivani Chavda collection for Warehouse, which uses gorgeous prints and vibrant colours.

It wouldn't be Autumn/Winter without a glimmer of gold, and this dress - also from Warehouse - adds a classy edge. The slit sleeves are modern but the shift shape is timeless. I always think it's much easier to wear gold than silver in dresses, because too much silver can lead to the inevitable 'she's wrapped herself in tin foil' comments.

Keeping warm doesn't have to mean cutting out style, as Warehouse proves with this pink double-breasted coat on one model and faux fur stole against an inky blue maxi skirt on another. It's about adding a shot of pure colour to keep things fresh. Alongside the hot coat, this model's neon pink lipstick looks great - Barry M and Sleek do some brilliant shades if you want to recreate it.

As you can see, the models' hair was suitably autumnal, with a lot of backcombing and texturising spray making up the final look.

Forever 21 gave us a zig-zag maxi in scarlet, with a bright red hat to top things off.

This corset top is made into a fashion item, rather than something for the lingerie drawer, with the addition of a tan blazer and a white skirt. Very creative styling - love it.

Another example of inventive styling was at New Look, where this slinky yellow shirt-dress was given an under-layer in cream and a pencil-thin red scarf to accessorize. It's a much more interesting take on day wear than the dress alone, because it becomes part of a layered blend of autumnal colours.

Dionne Bromfield was an excellent choice for the guest singer. Not only was she flawless, but she seemed genuinely lovely and had been styled appropriately for her age in a petal-cut silver top and skinny trousers with heels.

The dark denim shirt has been everywhere in the past few seasons of menswear, but it is refreshed next to this tomato red cardigan and slicked back matinee idol hair.

I love the silhouette made by this model as she stopped for the cameras. Her teal jumpsuit ticks several trends: Studio 54 glam, new season colours and sharp tailoring.

Dorothy Perkins has often disappointed me in recent years for its uninspiring stock, but this model's outfit was a pleasant surprise. Pairing mustard shorts with a pale coral top and vermillion jacket with gold buttons is a winning combination.

I not only love this dress because it's burgundy, but also because it feels like something from a Romantic-era painting. The corsages and the pleats bring it more towards modern dressing, but it would work just as well with bare feet and a touch of fairy dust at the bottom of the garden.

Marks and Spencers opens with a strong red coat - its 3/4 sleeves mean that there's a fashion edge over function, but the forgiving shape will prove popular.

I am badly lusting after this M&S dress (£39.50), which uses ecru panels on a black tube structure. One of the biggest motivators for me to get fit and tone up my stomach - it's good for being flirty, with contouring detail, but not slutty.

M&S Menswear takes on the log cabin look with check shirts, plain chinos and outdoorsy imitation Barbour jackets - more quilted padding than you can shake a stick at.

Kimberley Wyatt (formerly of the Pussycat Dolls) was in closest celeb proximity to me, just across the aisle and down a few rows. I loved her burgundy shorts and boxy jacket.

Kelis was another celeb at the event, and she seemed to be going for a Vivienne Westwood feel with a corset-style red top and tartan trousers. I also love her friend's hair, which has been ombre-dyed purple at the ends.

Forever 21 Opens on Oxford Street - A Photographic Visit

An example of budget brands translating high fashion effectively - the cut-out faux leather tunic t-shirt. So, what is Forever 21? Imagine that Topshop and H&M merged and decided to inject a bit of glitter. That's basically it - the target age is from teens to late twenties, and prices tend to reflect this. Shorts might be £12 or £15, and a pair of shoes is around £15 to £20.

Typical Forever 21 customers: young fashion lovers. They don't all own Louis Vuittons, though. Many of them emerged later with the shop's bright pink carriers - normally they are yellow in America (where the brand originates), but perhaps this would have clashed with the sunny bags of Selfridges. The American versions also carry a small Bible reference on the bottom, which the British versions luckily seem to have dropped. If I want Evangelism with my hotpants, I'll ask for it.

The window displays are bright and shouty, mirrored by the decor inside - this new store includes a mini-van with fake graffiti. It's the kind of visual merchandising that will get the teenage shopper buzzing, but it might give her mother a headache.

Colour is particularly strong in Forever 21 designs, no less so than in this feather maxi dress on the right (a snip at £22.75). It would work for a summer wedding or a relaxed city break.

This top caught my eye as the slogan is also the name of an Iron Maiden song (one of my favourite bands). I'm not sure many of the other customers would get that reference, though - the typical piped music during my visit was pop or indie.

Here's an example of the sneakier overpriced product, which Forever 21 also holds - it goes against the prices of other items, such as a panelled cotton skirt for just £4.75, to demand £19.75 for an un-lined canvas bag with faux leather handles and a simple camera print. Although this is a quirky and fun item, it seems extortionate at just under twenty quid. Ditto the single layer maxi skirt with the density of tissue paper and no zip, also at £19.75.

This is more like it. Bohemian, homely displays on the basement floor, using glass cloches and tiny dressmaker's dolls. The jewellery underneath is made to look classy and tempting.

I am quite in love with this bag, though it is ridiculously heavy due to the amount of metalwork in the chains. At £19.75 (the weird prices are due to the conversion from dollars) it is worth it for such a cool design and the bag's ability to transform a basic outfit.

There was a constant stream of traffic on the stairs, in the hour I spent here. It's a huge space, very well planned, but it could do with more escalators or lifts, and definitely more cash desks. I would rather lose out on a couple of rails of clothes if it meant there were two or three more tills to cut down on the queues. Even in the American branches I've visited, they seem to have difficulty processing the amount of shoppers efficiently.

This girl, like many others, was weary after traipsing around the Oxford Street store. It was an intense experience as I arrived on the opening day (27th), but I would recommend seeing it for yourself if you're able to, even if the crowds feel overwhelming. This is going to be a popular destination for London shoppers.

Four Forever 21 points to make:

1. The brand's spokesmodel in the UK is Bip Ling, the famous blogger and It-girl.
2. Other existing UK branches are Birmingham and Dublin. There are plans for a further London-based store in Covent Garden.
3. F21 has encountered many lawsuits and angry designers over repeated claims that it copies catwalk clothing too faithfully, with little or no changes to the original product. Although it's great that the F21 team are so beady-eyed, I'd feel more comfortable wearing something that wasn't entirely ripped off from someone else's work.
4. The sizes often come up on the tiny side - think Zara, in terms of Small/Medium/Large (I'm definitely a Large there). Shoes also seem to be more available in little sizes, and you need to remember that US footwear is two digits above ours, so a US 9 is a UK 7. I couldn't find any US 9s in the several styles that I liked, though there were more than enough US 7s and 6s to go round. I considered cutting off a few toes, but decided this might be regretted later.