The fashion buying for Spring/Summer 2012 takes place during the busiest time of the season in Ibiza, which means going to London, Paris and Milan and back in a day is essential. Which also means dealing with an early morning Easyjet flight (they fly direct) and long security queues (unheard of in winter), not to mention the stress of getting a taxi at the same time as the Vagabundos crowd is coming out of Pacha. Not easy!

It’s always an interesting experience, taking that first flight of the morning from Ibiza airport – depending on the destination there might be people drinking beer in the queue, looking like they need another holiday (like those returning to London), or looking glamorous, tanned and well rested (flights to Milan).

After the stress of getting there,  at least the collections are looking great! In general there is still lots of colour to be seen, although not the block colour that was big in 2010 – more patterns, some fluoros and different textures. There have strangely also been lots of Olympic themes… not just from the British designers, proud that London is the host of next year’s games, but from all over the globe. I’ve seen a collection of skirts and jackets called ‘The Swim Team’ made from wetsuit material (we’re not buying them here at reVOLVER mind you), t-shirts with Olympic medals, and of course the ubiquitous Union Jack, which never seems to go out of favour.

Considering sport and fashion don’t generally go together (except in the case of a footballer like David Beckham modelling for Armani), I find this is bit odd!

Fortunately there are also lots of good variations on the theme… lots of gold for starters. For women there is also super-sexy figure hugging wear for those with the body of an athlete and draped Grecian-style numbers for those of us without. And for men I’ve seen some of the most fabulous footwear EVER from Y-3.

Things are looking good for the athletes themselves too, with the aforementioned Armani to design the uniform for the Italian team, and Stella McCartney on board for the British. If every country ups the fashion stakes like this, there will be as much competition at the opening ceremony as the Games themselves… it would be a pretty impressive catwalk show!

So with the prospect of fabulous clothes in fabulous colours worn by the most amazing bodies on earth, (and I can’t quite believe I’m saying this with the closing parties only just over)… I’m looking forward to next summer already!