The wait is over - it's time to tackle the new season with confidence, because Marie Claire Runway's AW15 issue is out today! From Olivier Rousteng's selfie tips to Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen's advice on styling upholstery prints, here's a little teaser of some of the issue's best gems...
1. "Mary Katrantzou's chrysanthemum wallpaper [print] could look a bit Auntie Rita's council flat - she's got an ornate cocktail bar in the corner surrounded by some statuettes from Spain. But done in a deliberately class-conscious mash-up, like the late, great Isabella Blow would have done, this could be a surprising hit." The Changing Rooms guru himself, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen gives Runway his unique spin on AW15's interiors-inspired print trend
2. "My boyfriend found my life model, George, on Gumtree. He was really unfazed by all the editors, he didn't even want a little cover-up." Hot new London designer Molly Goddard explains the backstory behind the naked middle-aged man who was the star of her LFW presentation, which featured models doing life drawings while wearing her pretty tulle dresses. George didn't get to do the same.
3. "I'm not proud of it, but I once used pantyliners in a dress to prevent underarm sweat patches." Natalie Nartey, PR assistant extraordinaire at Roland Mouret, tells it like it is. Oh, the glamour.
4. "I want to be able to walk away one day. I got to quite a senior level in acting and walked away. I wanted to be in the Washington DC Shakespeare Theatre Company and I did it, but I knew I didn't have the skill to go any further. That's why I admire Helmut Lang. He walked away from it and it will always be good." The fashion world's very own boy wonder, JW Anderson, shows us the ambition and talent that got him the creative director job at Loewe - at the tender age of 29
5. "When I was very tired and sad, I talked with LVMH and they said they would help [fund his label]. I know many friends who had to stop - they're different now, there is something dark. I am lucky, I'm very lucky." Milan's latest must-know designer Marco de Vincenzo on the life-changing moment he got funding for his own label
6. "I wanted that feeling of a sensory overload in the collection, this animalistic, sexual woman wearing a new kind of camouflage." Dior's Raf Simons takes us behind the scenes during the making of his latest collection - including the thinking behind his smash hit distorted panther prints
7. "In America you have school dances, so I sketched what I wanted to wear and my mother took me to a fabric shop to have it made - the top was black velvet, long-sleeved, with a hot-pink taffeta bubble skirt." Sonia Rykiel's new creative director Julie de Libran got started on her design career early. Very early.
8. "I particularly remember a hand weave we commissioned from a village in Pakistan. We waited three years to have enough to make a very limited series of garments. When it came to be delivered, the journey to the nearest courier point took two days by donkey." Fabric connoisseur and fashion legend Dries van Noten gives Runway a rare glimpse into his design process
9. "You need good light, 'fish face' and a great filter. And always shoot from above, below is the worst." Balmain's Olivier Rousteng, aka the selfie king, on the secrets of looking hot in the shot. You'll have to buy the issue to find out what 'fish face' is.
10. "I was a forensic scientist, working for the Metropolitan Police and the Home Office. After time off to start a family, I decided not to return so I did a make-up course in London. There were lots of new nail products like acrylics and gels, and no-one knew how they worked - with my science head, I had to know." Manicure maestro Marian Newman on the unusual path that saw her end up as fashion's most feted nail artist.
For more gems like these, in-depth designer interviews and all the trends, accessories and fashion knowledge you could ever need, check out the new AW15 issue of Runway - out now
