ANYONE who knows anything about the fashion world will tell you that who you hang with is as important as what you hang on you when it comes to your SQ – style quotient.
It's no good just buying the pieces, you have to have the pals to go with them.
Ask Victoria Beckham.
Back in the dark days when she was just a moody footballers’ wife who used to be in the Spice Girls, she had millions to spend but no-one took her seriously as a fashionista.
Top designers were said to have snubbed her for red carpet outings.
That A-list celebrities would one day clamour to wear frocks designed by her and that Karl Lagerfeld would be her BFF seemed as likely as Kate Moss becoming a spokesperson for WeightWatchers.
Poor Posh needed a leg-up but her initial pairings were wide of the mark. The Cruises, with whom the Beckhams bonded when they first moved to LA, had star power but with all that Scientology baggage and sofa jumping Tom was hardly Mr Cool.
Victoria's world changed, however, when fashion demi-God Marc Jacobs entered her orbit. They clicked and he featured her in an advertising campaign – albeit one which required her to wear a bag on her head.
Before we knew it, VB was being snapped with Hollywood’s glossy posse.
She was seen out and about with Kate Beckinsale and Eva Longoria and from there it was just a few Louboutin-clad steps to Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Oprah and a Designer Brand of the Year title at the 2011 British Fashion Awards.
On Sunday, Victoria popped up as a judge for the International Woolmark prize at London Fashion Week joining a panel that included Donatella Versace, Net-a-Porter founder Natalie Massenet and Diane von Furstenberg. Talk about job done.
Fashion weeks are, of course, fertile ground for allegiances to be forged.
With guests from all worlds – fashion, film, sport and even royalty (well, Pippa Middleton) – they are the ultimate networking opportunity. If you are famous enough to get your skinny rear on a designer's front row, then you want to work it, girl . . . or boy.
One daren't imagine what One Direction's cheeky chappy Harry Styles said to Dita Von Teese when he was seated alongside the burlesque star at Burberry's spring show.
This time last year, Kate Moss and Rihanna were busy buddying up to each other at London Fashion Week. Tweeting cheeky snaps of themselves at Stella McCatney’s aftershow party, their collective SQ was off the scale.
Rihanna returned to LFW at the weekend and, in a perfectly executed fashion week move, this time made sure she was spotted partying at notorious celebrity hangout The Box, with model of the moment Cara Delevingne, aka ”the new Kate Moss”.
It should have been game, set and Fashion Week to Ri Ri, had Cara’s new bessie mate Rita Ora, below, not rocked up in London the next day in a T-shirt bearing the model’s face with the slogan "Queen Delevingne”.
For a few hours at least, Rihanna was not the only girl in the (paparazzi's) world.
Oddly, Kate Moss was nowhere to be seen at LFW, but she was out and about last week partying with . . . erm, Sarah Ferguson and Sir Tom Jones.
What was I saying earlier about WeightWatchers?
