Is Instagram changing the way we see fashion week?

Get your phone out for the FROW (Picture: Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images)

London Fashion Week was once an event reserved for the fashion elite, but the digital age has forced a new democracy. The exclusivity of fashion week has been snatched from the hands of fashion editors and handed to anyone with an internet connection.

It's official, Instagram has taken over the fashion world and it's giving us a glimpse into what's happening on the runway without us having to leave our bed.

It's almost become a fashion show ritual. As the lights go down, the phones go up. It's no news to us that Instagram is awash with the fashion obsessed: Victoria Beckham, Jourdan Dunn and Cara Delevingne are regular 'grammers, as are the hundreds of fashion bloggers who are bagging themselves invites to the shows. Every moment of fashion week is shot through the lens of an iPhone before it even hits Vogue.

Becks takes a family photo at Victoria's AW14 show in New York (Picture: Eric Thayer/Reuters)

Of course, designers have caught on to fact that hundreds of fashion week attendees are coming armed with their phones, ready to take photos of what seems like every moment of their day. But, they've got a few of their own tricks to create theatrical moments which even the fashion week veterans won't be able to resist snapping.

A must-snap moment from the Meadham Kirchhoff London Fashion Week AW14 show (Picture: Jonathan Short/Invision/AP)

The likes of Ashish and Meadham Kirchhoff made it almost impossible to resist taking a photo of their runway shows and Orla Kiely is always a firm favourite with fashion bloggers.

Arguably the most talked about moment of London Fashion Week for autumn/winter 2014, though, was when model of the moment Cara Delevingne claimed yet another fashion week first. As she walked the runway for Giles Deacon, she pulled faces, took selfies and later posted a video of herself walking the runway - something that caused quite a buzz on Twitter.

Cara takes her own photos on the catwalk at the Giles AW14 show (Picture: Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images)

It's not just the runway shows which are causing a stir on the fashion crowd's app of choice however. Brands and bloggers descend upon the cobbles each season to capture the best street style looks and micro trends. We've started taking note of street style at London Fashion Week as much as we have the runway shows themselves, but is Instagram even changing the way we blog about that?

There's been much debate about the stagnation of street style blogs of late as photographs seem increasingly contrived. When the most stylish are being snapped and filtered in real-time, are street style blogs becoming completely unnecessary? Are Instagram feeds becoming the new street style blogs?

Fashion brings out the amateur photographer in all of us and there's no better way to see what's now than from our Instagram feeds showcasing photos from both on and off the runway.

MORE: London Fashion Week: 10 things we've learnt for autumn/winter 2014