Parties: A study in champagne

The average student party usually involves a shoddy stockpile of cheap booze. Not so for London College of Fashion students: last week's party at the Royal Academy, celebrating the end of their Fashion Framework MA, was chic, slick – and overflowing with champagne.

The evening kicked off with a catwalk show watched by designer Betty Jackson and fashion journalist Sarah Mower, whose catwalk reviews for Style.com usually cast judgment on the likes of Alexander McQueen.

As Britain's Next Top Model Lianna Fowler stalked the catwalk, singer Beth Orton and writer Bronwyn Cosgrave looked on, the latter admiring artist Grayson Perry's fetish dress, complete with nipple ring-adorned pointed breasts. But even that paled in comparison with the looks on the catwalk, including a nude bodystocking decorated with felt pubic hair. One wonders what Jeremy Paxman, spied in the front row, made of such sartorial sarcasm. Perhaps he was just considering his next missive to M&S.

Before guests could ask, awards were being handed out to names to watch, including the designer Tim Dickinson, for his chic tailoring; and journalist Kate Gilbert, for her teen magazine Spurt.

So famished was the audience as they joined the hoi polloi at the aftershow party that they fell on miniature burgers and fish and chips with such relish that one BBC high-up was elbowed aside as he reached for a snack. More elbowing came when The Ordinary Boys' Preston, whose sister is at the college, stopped by to enjoy the attention of clamouring students.

Some things are the same for students everywhere, though: while the RA shut its doors at 10pm, for some the party continued, in raucous fashion, at the pub.