Charlie Kwai lets you sneak behind the scenes at London Fashion Week

Master of street photography Charlie Kwai was recently commissioned by the British Fashion Council to snap the hurried goings-on of London Fashion Week.

Charlie’s ability to always capture the truth in his photographs, whether it’s London’s city boys or the tro tros of Ghana, makes him the ideal choice to capture behind the scenes at one of the city’s most coveted events.

“British Fashion Council was keen to let me do my thing, so I wasn’t really given a brief,” the photographer tells It’s Nice That. “And that was super amazing, but also super stressful. I had complete freedom to do whatever I wanted, but it took a while to work out what that was.”

What it turned out to be was the not-so-glamorous side to fashion week, models sleeping on chairs, some with a number of arms doing her make-up simultaneously, and most people looking just generally pretty stressed out. But, in their honesty, Charlie’s photographs show the glimpses of the rush of excitement and dedication that pulls the week-long events together.

“Photography of behind the scenes at fashion week can be overly serious and really self-conscious sometimes, and I understand why that is, but I just wanted to have fun with it,” says Charlie. “I come from a street photography background, so it was great to apply those skills in a new environment – and that was fun.”