Parties: It's full-on at half-term

When the London College of Fashion held a catwalk show and after-party on 27 October to kick off its inaugural Fashioning the Future summit, a series of seminars on the subject of sustainability, your average punter would have been hard-pressed to spot a famous face. But for the clamouring students, a veritable dream line-up was present, from the ever-dapper Jaeger chairman Harold Tillman and ex-Topshopper Jane Shepherdson (now of Whistles) to Browns boutique owner Joan Burstein.

After the hit-and-miss show (sustainable fashion still has a way to go in the credibility stakes), judges including fashion doyenne Caryn Franklin (the one-time presenter of The Clothes Show) awarded nifty-in-a-crunch prizes of £1,000 each to the winners, before adjourning to a standing room-only party next door. With promised A-listers Colin Firth and Vivienne Westwood no-shows, it was left to Radio 1 DJ Nihal to provide the celeb sparkle, until organic beauty queen Jo Wood arrived, without husband Ronnie, but with wedding ring firmly on finger.

She was charm itself despite the chaos of the party – there was hardly room to move – and her personal life. Wearing vintage, she kept firmly on topic. "Tonight", she announced, "they made ethical fashion sexy; there were some trousers I'd love. I really loved the whole of the first collection." And the name behind that collection? Manon Flener – one, it seems safe to assume, to watch.