London sales up, despite weather

Retail sales in Central London in July were 11.6% higher over last year, a good gain on top of the 15.1% year-on-year increase in June 2006, when sales were recovering from the July 2005 bombings. Retail footfall fell further below year-earlier levels, according to SPSL, but the decline was against a strong gain last July. Strong sales but lower footfall further confirms evidence of fewer shopping trips, but higher average transaction values and a growing use of the internet. Visitor numbers were higher than a year ago. The usual summer increase in visits by Middle Eastern tourist shoppers shifted the lead from Western Europeans as the main spenders.

The very wet weather hit sales of summer clothing and footwear.“Tourism continues to widen the gap between booming sales growth in London and the declining trend elsewhere. Other helpful factors were the widespread discounting throughout the month and the heavy rainfall, which drove more shoppers into department stores. It will be some time before the direction of the underlying trend becomes clearer.”

Helen Dickinson, Head of Retail, KPMG, added “Given London was not so badly affected as other parts of the country by the poor weather in July, it is no surprise that central London, with like-for-like growth of 11.6%, outperformed the rest of the UK. This outperformance continues the trend seen in the capital over recent months highlighting the low base of previous years caused by the detrimental effects of the terrorist atrocities of 2005.”

15 August 2007

London retail sales rise

Retail sales in Central London in May were 6.3% higher than a year earlier, on a like-for-like basis, a good gain on top of the 14.1% year-on-year increase in May 2006. Retail footfall fell further below year-earlier levels, according to SPSL. People continue to cut back on shopping trips, but spend more on each trip when they do shop.

Visitor numbers slowed a little. Western Europeans remained the main overseas shoppers, together with Russians and other Eastern Europeans, but North Americans were less numerous than a year ago. Clothing and footwear were hit by the poor weather but fashion accessories and beauty products held up well. Home and leisure was mixed, with some big-ticket items affected by consumer caution, but smaller homewares improving after a poor April.

14 June 2007

New Generation designers selected

The four new designers chosen to receive New Generation catwalk support during London Fashion Week are Clare Tough, Christopher Kane, Todd Lynn and Marios Schwab.

London-based Swedish design duo Jojo & Malou have been given support from New Generation to show at The Exhibition @ London Fashion Week for the first time. They will exhibit alongside labels including Avsh Alom Gur, Erdem, Husam El Odeh and Modernist.New Generation is sponsored by Topshop. London Fashion Week takes place at the Natural History Museum in London, from 18-22 September.

www.topshop.com
www.londonfashionweek.com

London Fashion Week collaborates with D&A

London Fashion Week has announced a joint venture with Designers & Agents, the alternative trade event in New York City and Los Angeles.

D&A will organise and present a showcase of ready-to-wear and accessories collections at the upcoming London Fashion Week, running 18-22 September.

London Fashion Week is organised by the British Fashion Council and is the first stop on the European leg of the Ready-to-Wear collections circuit. Alongside this high-profile event, which features catwalks shows from Giles Deacon, Christopher Kane and Emporio Armani, it will feature over 170 vendors and draws the cream of the crop of world buyers and press.

D&A was founded by Barbara Kramer and Ed Mandelbaum almost ten years ago. D&A showcases over 800 of the newest and brightest ready-to-wear and accessory designers and is acclaimed for its keen talent spotting and inventive staging. D&A shows are presented at each of the five US markets in both New York and Los Angeles and twice yearly in Tokyo, Japan.

The D&A showcase at LFW represents a growth opportunity for both D&A and London Fashion Week. For the first time ever, the primarily American designers featured in the D&A showcase will have the chance to present their collections to British and International buyers and press from within the London Fashion Week marketplace. Likewise, the addition of these collections will expand the breadth of offering at The Exhibition at LFW, introducing new talent to the event and its visitors, and reinforcing London Fashion Week’s worldwide stature.

www.londonfashionweek.com
16 August 2006

LCF graduate show at Royal Academy

The London College of Fashion is celebrating its 100th Graduate Catwalk Show this year. As part of its celebrations, LCF is moving its annual show out of Graduate Fashion Week and instead will show at the Royal Academy of Arts.

The student’s final year collections will be showcased on the 1st of June at a ticket-only event.
LCF will have a stand at Graduate Fashion Week, which takes place at Battersea Park Arena on  June 4-7.

Crime in the city

Retail theft and shoplifting are causing great security issues as retailers are failing to invest properly in in-store security, according to consultancy Ernst & Young. Lax security, such as inadequate staff surveillance or untrained personnel together with poor layouts in stores is an incentive to criminals.

In a survey by Ernst & Young, which involved 67 high street retailers, 50 per cent of the clothing stores had some form of security in the form of CCTV cameras, security tags or electronic barriers. However, about 30 per cent of stores had their surveillance endeavours by low-level signage and tall shelving, which led to blind spots.

Ernst & Young director of retail Tim Sleep stated that staff spent more time filling shelves or operating tills than being attentive to customers, creating a shoplifter-friendly environment.

In a recent Draper's Record survey, 34% of premium menswear independent retailers had been victim of shoplifting in the past month, as had 20 per cent of premium womenswear independents. Shoplifters mainly targeted jeans and jackets, favouring brands such as Armani, ‘Stone Island and Prada Sport in menswear stores, while accessories were most likely to be stolen from women's shops, followed by coats.

British Sups and |Stores Association professional services director Bob Jarrett told Draper's that incidents of violence against retail staff was on the increase. He further added that the introduction of Chip & Pin technology had helped cut card fraud.

According to British Retail Consortium figures, retailers spent £710 million on combating retail crime in 2004.

Central London sales up in March

Retail sales in Central London were up 5.5% in March on a like-for-like basis, compared to the same period last year when sales had failed to grow, despite Easter falling during the month. The three-month trend rate of growth was virtually unchanged at 7.1%.

Both foreign and UK visitor numbers increased, uplifting footfall by 5%. Clothing was mixed, often depressed by the cold weather but with some upmarket ranges doing well. Home and leisure were good for some retailers, especially with promotions, but difficult for others.

London sales once again outperformed UK sales, for the fifth consecutive month, after four months of substantially larger declines than in UK sales.Kevin Hawkins, LRC Director, said “The welcome recovery in central London's performance continues, making up for the serious reverses which retailers experienced for much of last year. Costs, however, continue to rise well above RPI – especially rents and rates – so margins remain under pressure.”

Helen Dickinson, Head of Retail, KPMG, added “Once again London has outperformed the rest of the UK. On the face of it the timing of Easter does not appear to have had such a marked impact on these sales as it had for the UK as a whole. However, this is to some degree masked by a weaker comparative in Central London in 2005 and the fact that the results have also benefited from changes in the timing of some promotional activity in the run-up to Easter. As with the UK scheme a truer picture of the underlying trend will only be seen once we can assess March and April's figures together.”

Zara most successful on the high street

Spanish fashion group Inditex, the owner of Zara stores, has overtaken Sweden's Hennes & Mauritz as Europe's largest clothes retailer, thanks to its aggressive pace of store openings. Inditex on Wednesday reported net sales of €6.74bnfor the financial year ending January 31, 2006, compared with H&M's net sales of SKr61.2bn for the year ending November 30, 2005.

The Spanish group's net profit rose 26 per cent to €803m, thanks to a 22 per cent increase in selling space after it opened 448 new stores, and a 5 per cent increase in like-for-like sales.

H&M's full-year profit was higher than that of Inditex at SKr9.2bn, reflecting the Swedish retailer's more mature business.

Inditex shares climbed more than 3 per cent to an all-time high as investors welcomed the announcement of a 40 per cent increase in the dividend a share. By contrast, H&M's share fell 2.3 per cent as the company reported disappointing first-quarter results and poor sales in March due to cold weather.

Nils Vinge, H&M's head of investor relations, said the Swedish group was untroubled by Inditex's faster sales growth. "For us, it's not a goal in itself to be the biggest in terms of turnover. Our mission is always to give our customer value for money by giving them fashion and quality at the best price."

But analysts said the contrasting share movements reflected the more promising business momentum at Inditex, which opens a new store every day of the year and has a target of 4,000 stores by the end of 2009, compared with 2,700 stores at present.

The different business models followed by the two rivals are also affecting their financial results.

H&M, which outsources its clothes manufacturing, on Wednesday blamed falling margins on the reimposition of textile quotas on Chinese goods in Europe and the US. H&M sources about 30 per cent of its clothes from China.

Chief executive Rolf Eriksen said quotas on imports from China would have a negative effect in the second and third quarters of this year, although gross margins would remain unchanged.

Inditex, by contrast, still manufactures most of its fashion collections in-house, and is therefore less affected by import quotas.

Analysts also said the two retailers targeted different markets. H&M aims its fashion collection at the younger, cheaper end of the market, and has therefore been more vulnerable to competition from discount retailers.

Inditex, by contrast, runs eight different store formats aimed at different segments of the fashion market.

Deputy PM approves South London shopping centre

John Prescott gave the go-ahead for a firm of developers to to build an enormous shopping centre months after the owners of the company secretly loaned Labour £3.3 million. Sir David Garrard and Andrew Rosenfeld, the ‘Minerva Two', won the backing of the Deputy Prime Minister, to build a £500 million retail centre in Croydon, South London, which will become one of the country's 10 biggest shopping malls. Mr Prescott, who claims that he did not know about the series of loans that have plunged Labour into a crisis about sleaze, ruled last October that a rival retail development should not go ahead.

B Store on Savile Row

There aren't many directional boutiques in West-London apart from the gallery-esque Dover Street Market and perhaps Browns Focus, and B Store has maintained its aura of edgy and directional fashion without bowing down to mainstream designers.

The boutique, which has just moved from its tiny premises on Conduit Street to Savile Row, is now a first-class fashion emporium in its own right. The store has called upon its family of designers (think Bernard Willhelm, Peter Jensen and Siv Stodal) to commission and contribute their interior design skills to the stores.

Amongst their collections there will soon be a showcasing of Graduates, who have a chance to show and sell their creations to the customers.

B Store is located on 24 Savile Row, W1, 020 7494 6846.

Supermarkets take over high street

Supermarkets are a menace and are destroying local communities. This is the overwhelming view of Financial Mail readers in a survey into the power of the retail giants. The poll results back the findings of a Parliamentary inquiry last week called for radical steps to stop the destruction of family firms, corner shops, butchers and newsagents.

The all-party Small Shops Group said that 40 per cent of Britain's 50,000 small stores could be lost by 2015 because of the relentless march of the supermarkets. These fears were echoed by a huge response from readers who said how they had been hit by the growth of the biggest chains – Asda, Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury's.

Liberty to build hotel

London's luxury department store Liberty has filed for planning permission to create a hotel – a 41-room boutique hotel to be called Liberty of London.

The bohemian store, whose brands include Maison de Martin Margiela, Chloe and C&C California, has proposed to convert unused space in its Tudor building in Great Marlborough Street as a hotel.

Soho, which only counts the Soho Hotel as its best high-end accommodation, could certainly benefit from another hotel. One can almost imagine the beautiful liberty prints to grace the rooms.

London Retail Business Show

A retail technology exhibition is to be hosted in South West London when The Retail Business Show opens at its new home in Earls Court 2 next month, on February 1. Now in its third year, The Retail Business Show, which is sponsored by Torex Retail, is expecting more than 120 exhibitors. Over 100 suppliers for the retail industry will be showing their products to an expected 2,500 visitors. As well as major IT vendors such as Microsoft, Alphameric, BT Expidite, Conchango, K3 Landsteinar, NCR, Paxar and Sony, the two-day show will include a series of themed workshops covering some of retail hottest topics.

The Retail Business Show Thought Leadership Pavilion, sponsored by Microsoft, will be the central focal point of the 2006 event, presenting case studies, the latest developments, best practise and insight into the retail industry and a series of free “expert” briefings. Also at Earls Court 2 on 1-2 February, alongside the Retail Business Show, will be Screen Expo Europe a complimentary event covering the world of digital media networks & signage.

The Retail Business Show will be the place to visit for the very latest IT, systems and services that will help drive your retail business forward in 2006.

The exhibition runs from Wednesday, 1st February 09.30 - 17.00 to Thursday, 2nd February 09.30 - 16.00.

18 January 2006

Jaeger to refresh London presence

Jaeger is to refresh its London presence with a £1m planned refurbishment of its London flagship headquarters on Regent Street.

The work, which will include a complete overhaul of all three floors and a coffee shop, will begin in early 2006. The exterior will be given improved lighting and new anings. Jaeger has 102 stores across the UK and Europe.

Villa Moda to open in London

The Kuwaiti luxury retailer Villa Moda is set to open its first store a The Power Station in London in spring 2009, reports WWD. The Power Station is a £1.1 billion retail, hospitality and residential project in the former Battersea power station. The new store will encompass three stories in the new development.

"It's always been my dream to bring my knowledge and vision of luxury retail to Europe," Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah, founder of the luxury fashion and accessories stores, told WWD on Monday in a telephone interview from Dubai, where he was attending the International Herald Tribune's third annual fashion conference. "Europe, frankly, is a little tired these days when it comes to retail. It's the East and Middle East where things are happening right now."

Villa Moda is said to be the first business to open at The Power Station. Al-Sabah, who opened the Villa Moda store in Kuwait City three years ago, said that the London store would be influenced by retail destinations from different locations, from the bazaars of the Middle East to Portobello Road. He added that designers and brands that decided to participate would be asked to design one-off products for the store.

He did not yet reveal which brands will feature in the store.

London to improve for shoppers

London Retailers have announced plans to improve the shopping environment to the Capitals busiest shopping district by cutting traffic and creating more pedestrian areas.

The New West End Company also wants to ban general traffic and put more taxi ranks into Oxford Street. The Capital has also been hit by the July terrorist attacks with people visiting the West End sharply down. The mayor has earmarked £3m in improvements to transport in Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street over the next three years.

London to receive 70m investment to restore glory

London 's West End is to receive 70m to restore the luster of Central London. The Vision sets out a way to enable the West End to bounce back from the massive impact of 7th July - business is still up to 30% down - and to pr esent a truly world class city centre for London in time for the 2012 Olympics.

Amongst the schemes within the Vision are major im pr ovements to Oxford Street and a multi-million pound development of Leicester Square. Simon Milton, Lea der of Westminster City Council, said: " London 's West End is an economic powerhouse, a shop window for what London has to offer in retail, leisure and entertainment and a series of residential communities. "There are great challenges ahead. If we are to fully address the economic impact of the bombings, and make London 's centre truly worthy for the city hosting the Olympics and Paralympics, we need to invest now.”

3 November 2005

Day Birger et Mikkelsen open London store

Danish fashion brand Day Birger et Mikkelsen have opened there first boutique outside Denmark. The Scandinavian lifestyle clothing company, which was founded in 1997 by Keld Mikkelsen in 1997, have settled in comfortably on London's Sloane Street, where loyal customers can have buy their signature sophisticated bohemian clothes; an ode to vintage glamour from past decades.

The boutique houses the womenswear, menswear and kids collections, as well as showcasing its accessories, lingerie and homeware.

23 October 2005

London retailers call for lower business rates

London Businesses are pleading for a rates rebate to help them recover from last months terror attacks. They are supported by Westminster council. A similar scheme was put in place in Manchester following the IRA bombings. Business in London 's West End which includes retailers, hoteliers and restaurants has said that trading has been poor since the attacks. Council leader Simon Milton has said in a letter to Gordon Brown “The business rates collected from businesses here in central London are re-invested to support areas all over the UK . But, at the current time, it is central London that needs additional support; to enable our Capital to get back up and running in the wake of these terrorist atrocities.”

22 August 2005

London retailers's slow recovery

Following the devastating bombings last Thursday in London, retail sales had declined much less than expected over the weekend. Although the city's retailers are still suffering the after-effects, many Londoners were determined to return to their normal routines and headed for the shops.

SPSL, the shopping tracking agency, found that trade had improved since the attacks on Thursday, when non-food retailers in Central London suffered a 74 per cent year-on-year decline in shoppers. The weekend showed a recovery, with numbers down by 26 per cent on Friday, by 21 per cent on Saturday and by 28 per cent on Sunday.

Tim Senison, director of knowlegde management at SPSL, told the FT that the agency had expected the results to be a great deal worse. "We underestimated the resilience of Londoners," he said. Department store John Lewis revealed that Saturday had proven to be a better day for the retailer than expected. "Our sales were better than we expected, considering the circumstances, although they were not normal trade for a Saturday," it said.

"After September 11, shopper numbers returned to previous levels within two weeks, so we would hope and expect a similar scenario to occur again," said the British Retial Consortium. "If tourists stay away from London, then we would expect the impact of the attacks to be more long-term," it added. The BRC predicted retail losses of about £26 million from Thursday to Monday.

The World Travel Tourism Council called a crisis committee meeing, which met in London on Friday. It ammended its initial forecast of 31 million visitors arrivals to the UK this year by 2 per cent less.

12 July 2005

London copes with terrorist attacks

The streets were eerily quiet following the Al Qaeda attacks on Central London yesterday. The sounds of urban living were replaced by sirens, helicopters, and a stillness that covered the city like a rain-heavy blanket as pedestrians in their thousands silently took over the deserted streets.

Retail stores closed with the news of the first bomb, and Oxford Street - the high street shopping delight for half-price bargains this time of year - was shut down with stores such as H&M, Top Shop and Zara closing their doors and smaller boutiques following. Some department stores remained open, but the mood to shop vanished as most people were listening to radios and watching television in pubs to keep up with the latest news.

The London mentality to ban together in times of crises certainly prevailed. And as the proverb goes, something beautiful always follows tragedy. In the early hours this morning, following a day of attacks and utter chaos, fashion designer Madeleine Press gave birth to a healthy baby daughter.

Life, indeed, goes on.

8 July 2005

London rocks, according to Hedi Slimane

Dior menswear designer Hedi Slimane guest-edited an edition for France's left-leaning newspaper Liberation, last week. Called "London Calling," the front (and back) page featured a photograph Slimane took of Pete Doherty, companion of Kate Moss, frontman of Babyshambles and formerly of the Libertines.

Slimane's fascination with London's rock scene unfolded throughout the paper he designed via photographs - many taken by himself - and pieces written by the likes of Paul Simonon of The Clash and Alison Mosshart of The Kills.

9 May 2005

London for design

If you're looking for something special, hand-made and off the beaten track, London has some exciting new boutiques. Newly opened Family Tree in Exmouth Market stocks designs by talented young designers that you may see at Spitalfields. This time without the stalls or the congestion.

Another boutique, Beyond the Valley, was set up Central Saint Martins designers Jo Jackson, Kate Harwood and Krisriana Williams. When they realised their graduation collection was being bought of the racks, they decided to set up shop (a not-for-profit organisation to no high mark-ups) selling a wider mix of student fare. The one-offs they stock are from a selection of over 100 young designer.

For all things hand-made head to Hand in West London, W11. Here you will find unique pieces sourced from around the world by owners Gail Arnold and Susannah Baker-Smith.

Family Tree, 53 Exmouth Market, EC1 (020 7287 1084)
Beyond the Valley, 26 Ganton St, W1 (020 7437 7338)
Hand, 11 Colville Mews, W11 (020 7792 1292)

4 February 2005

London Fashion Week one's to watch

Each season, London brings the best of new fashion talent to the catwalk and never fails to inspire. This season, watch out for Sinha-Stanic, the duo Geordie Sinha and Aleksander Stanic, who debuted last September at Fashion Fringe. With AEFEE supporting their manufacturing and a deal under Topshop's New Generation scheme, their first solo show will one of the week's highlights.

So too with Future Classics, the now almost-famous Hoxton-based Label that draws it's inspiration from Martin Margiela and Helmut Lang. As designer Julie Willkins says: "I tend to design traditional garments, but in a strange way." Wilkins will show her collection for the first time at London Fashion Week.

www.londonfashionweek.com
5 February 2005

London Fashion Week

The British Fashion Council announced that the next London Fashion Week, sponsored by the Evening Standard, will be held from Sunday 13th to Thursday 17th February in Battersea Park. The change of venue follows a decision in September by the Planning Inspectorate that it is not lawful for events such as London Fashion Week to be held at the Duke of York's Headquarters without specific planning permission. Planning applications for future events to be held at the Duke of York's have been submitted, but their outcome will not be known until after the February event.

Commenting on the move, BFC Chairman, Stuart Rose said, "We have known for some time that it might not be possible for London Fashion Week to remain at the Duke of York's indefinitely. It is our strong wish to return to the King's Road, but until our application is considered by Kensington & Chelsea Council, we have no choice but to move."

BFC Deputy Chairman, Anne Tyrrell, added, "We have done extensive research into alternative venues for February. Locating in Battersea Park enables us not only to duplicate the exhibition layout we have used successfully for the last few seasons at the Duke of York's, but also presents us with the opportunity to have two on site show venues. Although Battersea Park is less than a mile from the Duke of York's, we will also be laying on a fleet of vehicles to ensure that press and buyers experience the minimum inconvenience getting to and from Battersea - so it will be very much business as usual."

London Fashion Week catwalk shows will run from Sunday 13th to Thursday 17th February 2005. The Exhibition atLondon Fashion Week will be open from Sunday 13th February until Wednesday 16th February.

13 January 2005

London Eye2Eye to launch Bernard Wilhelm

Eye2eye London is to launch the new footwear collection from Bernard Wilhelm next month. The high fashion designer based in Paris will beshowing both his men's and women's collections on-schedule in the respective Paris Fashion calendars has chosen eye2eye as its launch platform for the new footwear range.

The launch joins a string of new exhibitors including Italian brand Fessura, Missoni footwear, Pucci scarves, alongside returning exhibitors Marc Jacobs, Chloe, Cachareland Veronique Branquinho. Eye2Eye runs from 13-15 February at the Truman Brewery in East London

6 January 2005

Busted Switch On Regent Street Lights

Boyband Busted took London by storm when they switched on the world famous Regent Street Christmas lights, the climax of an outdoor event that saw 45,000 people flock to London's 'mile of style'. Busted performed three of their number one hits to huge crowds in a one off free street concert, marking 50 years of Christmas lights. Regent Street has joined up with Disney/ Pixar and created a set of lights themed to this year's most anticipated movie, The Incredibles.

Mr Incredible and his superhero family now light up London's most stylish shopping destination using ground-breaking technology creating the most innovative and sophisticated lights the capital has ever seen.

Regent Street was closed to traffic for the afternoon and transformed into a winter wonderland with real live reindeer, 50 Father Christmases, street entertainers and music from the 50's through to present day. Sporting celebrities including the British gold medallist Matthew Pinsent took to the stage followed by Hollywood A-lister Samuel L Jackson, who voices one of The Incredibles characters, Frozone.

The tradition of the Regent Street Christmas lights goes all the way back to 1954 when The Daily Telegraph described London as looking drab and dull during the Christmas months. The retailers took it upon themselves to ensure that Regent Street was the first street in London to have Christmas lights.

The lights are financed by the retailers with support from The Crown Estate, which owns Regent Street. The Regent Street Association founded in 1925 to look after the interests of the retailers and businesses in the area.

11 November 2004

Is London Hot For Fashion?

London is heating up again and a new confidence in the fashion sector is seeing designers investing in the capital by opening new stores and launching new products. The safety-net of commerciality is slowly being reeled in and the so-called-innovation that once put London in the top spot of the fashion map is definitely on the rebound.

Perhaps all these images of war-torn nations and global disarray is having a positive effect on the fashion industry, which tends to rebel against stark political fronts and conservative times by offering something a little more fun, frivolous and daring. It's all about making a statement and no one does it better than our best-loved designers who instinctively inject a little glamour into our serious and turmoiled lives.

Take Roberto Cavalli, for instance. The flash Florentine designer who's loyal following cannot get enough of his sexy dresses. His flamboyant designs are being lapped up by the Chelsea set and Jordan alike since the opening of his new boutique on Sloane Street last week. While prim and proper fashion offers this season's refined look - which does in fact make a great look for day - people are looking for more upbeat fashion, a little bit vintage, a little bit flirty, a little more fun.

So, too, we are looking beyond our front doors for what is current and what is fashionable. Selfridges' Brazil 40° festival, which runs until May 30th, is showcasing some serious South American talent in terms of contemporary fashion. What better time then now, to introduce a new spirit and seduce us with a passionate culture. Go and get yourself a sunshine wardrobe while the city is heating up.

Don-Alvin Adegeest
18 May 2004

Micro-minis set tone in London

Mini's, Mods and punk rock took centre stage as London Fashion Week kicked off this weekend. Once again organisers face the challenge proving the city still deserves its reputation as the capital of cool. On Saturday though fantasy ice-queens in glittering micro-minis and feather coats kicked off the Fashion Week with their silver stilettos in a super hip debut show from designer Jenny Packham.

In recent years London has struggled to prove its supply of edgy young designers can still cut it with the best. "The other cities might have the commercial muscle but London's strength lies in its talent," said Nicholas Coleridge, chairman of the British Fashion Council which organises the twice-yearly event. "It is less predictable in London and slightly more buccaneering and dangerous in the way that young designers take greater risks."

This Winter 2003 schedule has 50 catwalk shows as well as two dozen off-schedule events.
Among the more established names showing are Julien Macdonald, Roland Mouret, Burberry and Paul Smith. Clements Ribeiro and Katharine Hamnett are returning to London after several seasons showing elsewhere. Lesser known designers tipped as rising stars include Alice Temperley, Warren Noronha, Emma Cook and Sophia Kokosolaki.

The absence of international headline-makers (models and designers alike) has led to criticism that London lacks the glamour to make a big impact. This season sponsors Procter and Gamble have tried to inject a bit of gloss by paying for a raft of supermodels -- including Erin O'Connor and Jodie Kidd -- to fly in to London. These models will each appear in three shows -- including one by a small designer of their choice.

February 18, 2003