So, last night, I headed along to Brown Thomas for Vogue‘s Fashion Night Out and to cover it for the paper – article here.

Photograph by Aidan Crawley

What I was struck by, mostly, was that there were no freebies – sure, there was a bar, hidden away on the third floor, but the queue was roughly an hour long, and even the girls walking around with the Benefit mascaras weren’t offering anything, save a trial of said mascara and the chance to buy it, at full price.

In any case, I hung around for a good long while – too long, one might have thought – snapping pics and chatting to punters and, oh yes, buying one of Chanel’s limited edition Fashion Night Out nail polishes:

That’s my feet you see there, in my favourite ever Buffalo boots – dead ringers for the Acne, those – Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress (which I decided was not for me and will be selling in the Great Rail Sale) and Burberry trench.

Then I did an embarrassing, “girls, can I get your picture?” to L’Or and Thalia, two of the young models who walked in the hourly Brown Thomas shows. They’re seriously gorgeous girls and, I think, two of Ireland’s top models right now.

Finally, I snapped Kara Moore, whose faux fur and 1970s hat combination was really quite impressive. That’s something I’ll say for the event; people seriously dressed up! It lent the evening a real celebratory vibe, in a way, like there was something to dress up for, to go out for, to hang around for . . .

Did you go out last night? Where did you go? What did you think?