Empty seating, few buyer and technical glitches – the Oxybleach India International Fashion Week (OIIFW) got off to a rather unsatisfactory start. But the organizers hope the event will lead to swap over of ideas in the middle of designers.Unlike other fashion events where you have an important ramp, OIIFW has a flat ramp with a very casual seating arrangement – not in maintenance with international standards.

Though the organizers of the event had claim they had many domestic buyer during the three-day event at the Crowne Plaza, not even a single purchaser was spotted on the opening day on Thursday. The fashion week ends on Saturday.One of the reasons for a lukewarm response could be the position of the venue that makes it difficult for people to spend a whole day presence the event, considering the long travel time.With designers from country like the US, Tanzania, Pakistan, Spain, Israel, Norway, China, Romania, Dubai and Australia participate in the event, expectations were high. Monapali is the Indian designer participates in the fashion week.

“The whole idea of this event is to introduce international designers to India so that the customers get idea of the international trends and these designers too get a hang of the Indian fashion production,” Sanjay Kapur, organizer of OIIFW, said.

“Through this event we are hopeful that we can put together some barter system where Indian designers too get an opportunity to contribute in international fashion weeks. The way we have invited international designers, we are hopeful that Indian designers too go there and contribute,” he said.

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Lily Allen’s Fashion for Appoint

Lily Allen wants to quit the music production to turn out to be a salesperson. The Smile vocalist is dissatisfied with the industry that made her famous and particularly annoyed by against the law music downloads. She told Radio 1’s Sara Cox: It’s about manufacture fashion self-governing that’s the idea behind it it’s about in receipt of really nice clothes but letting people rent them for rationally priced prices so they can go out and experience like a million dollars and it won’t cost them a million dollars.

Lily Allen Goes all Christmas in a Dress the Colour of Mulled Wine

And we hear the singer got into the festive spirit in more ways than one at the awards ceremony at London’s Mandarin Oriental hotel. She certainly looked worse for wear arriving at the Live Lounge to record a track for Radio One yesterday morning. But fans will be shocked to hear that Lily is taking a two-year break from music after an O2 concert with Dizzee Rascal in March. She confirmed she is setting up a fashion store with her sister called Lucy in Disguise. Lily told Radio One: “I’m going to concentrate on doing some behind the scenes stuff. The idea is about getting really nice clothes but letting people rent them for affordable prices.” Sounds great but don’t stay away too long…

Lily Allen Confirm Vocation Split

After months of rumors and counter-rumors, Lily Allen has established that she is to take a smash from her music career once her existing commitments have been satisfied. Speaking to BBC News beat, Allen said: “My last gig is my Dizzee Rascal concert at the O2 (London) in March. That’s the last thing I’ve got considered. I’m just leaving to ponder on doing some behind-the-scenes sort of stuff.” Contrary to speculation that she was set to make a career move into acting, Allen said that she was planning on opening a rental fashion store with her sister called Lucy in Disguise. She said: “It’s about making fashion self-governing. That’s the idea behind it. It’s about getting really nice clothes but letting people rent them for reasonably priced prices so they can go out and feel like a million dollars and it won’t cost them a million dollars.” Allen also confirmed that she was also in the process of setting her own record label with a focus on developing new talent: “I’m going to get into signing innovative bands, but at a really early level. I don’t want to contend with other documentation companies, but I want to prop up innovative artists.” This week Allen established she plans to take a two-year break from her singing career on one occasion she has completed live dates with Dizzee Rascal next year you can Get Tickets Here for person’s co-headline concerts.

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Here’s an extremely systematic status of the top models in this year’s style explain. This list was compiled taking into contemplation factors such as long and realistic overhaul to the Victoria’s Secret brand name, celebrity achievement outer surface the airstrip, efforts made towards further world silence, and that insubstantial something called “the author really thinks she’s hot.”

10. Behati Prinsloo: immediately out of her adolescence, this Namibian is a superior name in Europe accurate now than in the States, but her relationship with Victoria’s Secret is commencement to make over that. She remind me a little of Kate Moss and who wouldn’t like a Kate Moss who can also fill out a bikini? The future looks brilliant for her.

9. Selita Ebanks: She’s been on the border of truly enormous fame for a few years now. Ebanks was once occupied to Nick Cannon, who ended up marrying a celebrity much more celebrated as an alternative. Now, she has it appears that been cast in the coming period of The Apprentice, and actuality shows are typically the province of retired or semi-retired models. She may have peaked, but it’s been a very well climax.

8. Maryna Linchuk: How many flip-flops could a Linchuk throw if a Linchuk could chuck thongs? This Byelorussian fair-haired has to some extent domineering look that may keep her from contagious on as a massive star, but she took on greater importance in this year’s style explain, so we’re observance our eyes on her. And verbal communication of eyes, Linchuk’s baby blues are a sight to observe.

7. Doutzen Kroes: I’m not fairly in no doubt I get this girl. She works ad infinitum, but there seems to be a lack of a distinct image here. Even when you consider her most well-known characteristic, her lips, Kroes is overshadowing by the likes of Karolina Kurkova. Victoria’s Secret is a small fraction of what she does, so she’ll be fine smooth if she proves too boring for the company in the extensive sprint.

6. Candice Swanepoel: The babyish South African is part of the new group of Victoria’s Secret Angels, and sound is that she truthfully earned her wings in this year’s show. There’s no one concerned with Victoria’s Secret who has a bad body, but Swanepoel’s claim to fame (at least it will be once she’s truly famous) is her face she is as appealing as to create her body almost irrelevant.

5. Ana Beatriz Barros: Barros has been connected with Victoria’s Secret for most of the last decade, but even after all this occasion, there’s something a bit unfriendly about her, almost as if she was crowned heads who was lowering herself to model for us. She may need a good tabloid dishonor to get to the next level, but she in progress level is still powerful very well.

4. Marisa Miller: Her claim to renown at this level is that she brings a different look to the Victoria’s Secret stage. Shorter and much curvier than a high fashion model, Miller transitioned from cheesecake stuff to the big time, and is still escalating in importance at an age where most models are beginning to believe about what comes next. She’s the only Victoria’s Secret Angel who is better known for her Sports Illustrated costume issue appearances, which just goes to establish her flexibility.

3. Alessandra Ambrosio: How do the Brazilians do it? There’s not a large amount of a gap between Ambrosio and her countrywoman Barros, but while Barros is more classically pretty, Ambrosio is preposterously sultry. The female was born to be dressed in a swimsuit, but she’s awfully strong in the lingerie area as well. Ambrosio is closing up a full decade with Victoria’s Secret; may her bra wave high throughout the 2010s as well.

2. Heidi Klum: Ambrosio won plaudits for chronic to the fashion show in 2008 three months after having a baby, but Klum’s feat this year coming reverse only six weeks after having a fourth child at age 36, and with no having returned to her characteristic weight is an act of heroism they will be talking about until the end of time wherever models gather to throw up. She is speeding in the direction of the emeritus phase of her vocation, but Klum, like Christie Brinkley and Elle MacPherson before her, is a everlasting game in lingerie wisdom.

1. Miranda Kerr: The stars have united for Kerr to obtain her place atop the modeling world. She has an approachable look. She has a gorgeous pronunciation. She manages to come across as the young woman next door even when she’s strutting in a thong that provides almost absolute rear experience. She also has a dopey boyfriend in Orlando Bloom, so belongings aren’t perfect. But she’s as close up as we’re going to move toward in 2009.

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“I think people want to envision what it’ll look like first, before you go through all the effort.” Makeup and hair are very closely aligned to clothes, says Chanel Makeup global creative director Peter Philips, who is charged with using cosmetics to define the overall vision of Karl Lagerfeld. To complement Chanel’s chic country-fair look, Philips went with what he called “a fresh, effortless makeup, which enhances the natural beauty of women” and some temporary tattoos for fun. There was a lot of creativity backstage, says makeup artist Bobbi Brown, who found her scrubbing off everything from dark, winged eyeliner to glitter face paint between shows. So, sharpen your eye pencils, look for no-color lipstick and try a braid in your hair or maybe even a pompadour. Here’s how:

Natural Eyes

As makeup moves from delicate and glamorous to just being cool, Espinet says, the easiest way to detain that vibe is with shady eyes. “Luxurious, glamorous and rich have gone out the casement; the words are ‘edgy,’ ‘tough,’ ’strong,’ sometimes ‘over the top,’ “he says. “It’s about women who are empowered.” Think Chrissie Hynde or Siouxsie and the Banshees. Use black gloominess, liner and a lot of makeup.

Bare Lips

The light brown lips that were so well-liked are straightforward to adapt for daily use, but the adaptation is essential, Brown says. On the runway, models usually have groundwork on their lips to give a much balanced, very matte look, but the foundation can be caky and washed out if not through right, she says. She suggests beige lipstick instead.

Glowing skin

You wish for to get that glow with your skin, without being too dewy or sparkly, Espinet says, neither of which competition the season’s muse: the tough girl showing her softer side. “I communicate the skin as having the touch of a tan without noticeable color. She has the fresh, healthy ‘Got Milk?’ class of thing going on.”

Punk Princess

Neutrals aside, there were some moment of unpredicted, in-your-face color, too, counting the use of light purple, blue, green and orange lipsticks. “The theatrical trends are like the street theater of the late ’70s and ’80s, when people were inspired by punk. That’s what it reminds me of,” Espinet says. Still, it’s one bright effect on an otherwise plain face. “You want negligible product with utmost impact,” Espinet advise.

Braids, Bobs & Bows

Daily Makeover’s Hayes saw the ’80s in the huge hair bows. While they’re probably too flashy for most women, a toned-down trend could be headbands with bows on them, she says. “The great thing about Fashion Week is it throws a look out there in all its glory, and then you see how women tweak it to make it more wearable.” There was a clear indication that braids already popular this past summer will be worn well into next year. The 1920s bob was on additional than one catwalk and could be prime for a response, but the pompadour worn by Gwen Stefani and her LAMB models almost certainly is not, Hayes says with a laugh.

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It’s reimbursement time. After years of actresses usurping supermodels on the cover of fashion magazines, the tables have twisted, with runway sirens – not to talk about fashion editors and designers – storming the screen as though their waistlines depended on it. This year there have been two documentaries, Valentino: The Last Emperor and The September Issue, and the movie Coco Avant Chanel starring Audrey Tautou. The complete trend continues with another Chanel film, Coco Chanel ET Igor Stravinsky, out next April and a Vivienne Westwood biopic starring Kate Winslet in the works for Universal Pictures. Even film industry executives have been taken aback. James Hewison, an experienced film distributor who is finely tuned to the tastes of art-house audiences from his time as head of the Melbourne International Film Festival, was not expecting The September Issue to run for anything like 11 weeks. Documentaries usually normal five to six weeks in cinemas. Yet the cinematic peephole into the highly secretive world of American Vogue and its elusive editor Anna Win tour has taken a handsome $1.6 million in this country, crossing over from its expected demographic of women awestruck by the fashion industry. Hewison says he expected the film to find listeners, given it had come off the back of the hugely successful Meryl Streep comedy The Devil Wears Prada. ”We had not anticipated, I confess, that the film would get to the heady heights it has. It’s almost transcended its subject matter and, as much as I’m loath to admit this, the marketing campaign.” Those in the fashion industry, meanwhile, saw its pull a mile away, noting that the industry’s reputably bitchy milieu is a serious audience magnet, irrespective of gender, age or, more surprisingly, a concern for clothes. ”Anna [Win tour] has been demonized and [the audience] want to see how much of a witch she was,” says the editor of Vogue Australia, Kirstie Clements.

Clements says that many people ”who just didn’t seem to be predominantly interested in fashion” told her they were going to see the film. ”I think that people, for some reason, feel quite gratified by the idea that you’re going to be awful.” No doubt, there is something deliciously entertaining about seeing the world’s most elegant people behave like bores: Karl Lagerfeld whispering to Valentino that ”Compared to us, the rest are making rags”; Elle Macpherson horrifying a fellow haute-couture-clad guest at Valentino’s 45th anniversary gala by saying, ”No, you look amazing – amazing. Look at your tits!” Ask fashion insiders why there is a glut of these films and they describe the perfect sartorial storm, with myriad elements combining to make the trend almost inevitable. There has been an increasing prevalence of using designers as a mass-marketing tool over the past 10 years, for example, Nicole Miller’s limited-edition birth control pill packets and Paul Smith’s Evian bottle. Clements says this has ”democratized” fashion, and interest in it has never been greater. Hence the likes of Win tour have become a household name. The editor of Harper’s Bazaar, Edwina McCann, says reality TV shows about fashion wannabes (America’s Next Top Model, Project Runway, Stylist) have also helped whet an audience appetite to peek behind the chiffon curtain. The relatively recent phenomenon of celebrity-as-professional coat hanger, with Scarlet Johansson spraining for Dolce & Gabbana, Claire Danes for Gucci and Nicole Kidman for Chanel, has drawn attention to the industry even more.McCann says documentaries about fashion designers can avoid the traditional – and hefty – expenses involved with using actors, screenwriters and costumers while still delivering the necessary eye candy. ”You know you’re going to get celebrities, amazingly beautiful women, amazing dresses that are going to look better than any costuming in any film … You don’t even need a plot.” Even when studios do choose to restructure history, stranger-than-fiction drama is conveniently built in. A recent article in British Marie Claire discussed Wins let’s about to come about performance as Westwood. ”Wonder if she’ll dare recreate Vivienne’s Buckingham flashing incident?” it asked. The magazine was referring to when Westwood collected her Order of the British Empire at Buckingham Palace in 1992 exhausting no underwear, later twirling around in the courtyard, revealing all. Designers have been recognised as historical powerhouses, as is evidenced by recent museum retrospectives of couturiers such as Madeleine Vionnet and Paul Poiret. Hewison says this is one of the main reasons that his business, Madman, had the confidence to pick up Coco Chanel ET Igor Stravinsky (about Chanel’s connection with the Russian composer) at Cannes in May last year. This was months before The September Issue was released and Madman knew it had a hit on its hands. Hewison did not confirm whether his film about Coco Chanel would be the first to finally acknowledge her affair with an SS officer and a challenge to exploit pro-Aryan laws and take control of her perfume built-up commencement a Jewish family. But it raises the question: could the trend be accomplishment saturation point? Hewison sees the tendency continuing, saying these films are ”heat-seeking armaments” to women over the age of 30, recently naked by industry investigate to be ”the key decision-makers for choosing which film to see at the movies”.

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When we first scattered her doing the educate run with pal Stella McCartney, Claudia Schiffer legitimately became our favourite yummy mummy. Mixing characteristic dressmaking with jeans, a bright twist and some overwhelming accessories (including that fab pink and green Marc Jacobs scarf; beautiful), it seems nobody does day wear like Claudia. So it makes intelligence that the supermodel, who for two decades has fronted enormous campaigns for big hitters as well as YSL, Guess, Chanel and Alberta Ferretti, now has her sights set on her own style line (can’t say we didn’t forecast this…). She told a luxury conference in Berlin yesterday: ‘I would love to create my own lines now. I want the brand to be timeless and classic, with a fashion touching response. I would love to do cashmere; it is impressive I wear all the time in my opinion… I would love to do impressive that is a bit more price friendly and… A lot of cashmere is very classic; I would like to fashion impressive that is a bit more fashion.’ While other celebs-turned-designers like Victoria Beckham have opted to go down the glam evening wear route, we think there’s a real market for a new day wear line, more than ever one inspired by Claudia’s own uber-chic but multitalented wardrobe. And if we’re going along with this train of thought, we can just imagine her collection being based on a sort of fashionable-in-the-country idea. She also told the audience: ‘I do enjoy having a quiet life and, on the weekends, we go away to the countryside and do normal things, which make me feel good.’ At the moment, Claudia’s on the hunt for a backer for her first night raid into the conniving world. Club 21, are you listening?

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Vivienne Westwood has elongated been recognized for her quirky style. But the queen of British fashion has gone from punk to bad comedy with her most recent gathering. As be relevant a woman of Vivienne’s extraordinary physique, the Anglomania collection for Selfridges was showcased in an antiestablishment car park. Celebrities flocked to the occurrence for a first look at the latest Westwood funky fashion and Tracey Emin, Sadie Frost and Girls Aloud’s Nicola Roberts were all there, with Dame Vivienne herself seated in the front row. The event noticeable the opening of Selfridge’s exclusive Anglomania concept. Current autumn/winter collections are already on sale but this catwalk show previewed the spring/summer 2010 collection, available from late December. The range includes everything from funky ethnic prints and batiks to a reddish-purple taffeta ball gown. Even 13-year-old Dionne Bromfield, who performed two information as part of the give you an idea about, wore a printed prom uniform from the collection. She told the Telegraph: “Her clothes are so poles apart; you just can’t be in motion toward diagonally anything like it everyplace.” Which goes some way to explaining why Westwood’s shows are such a thump with the Celebes?

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Previous supermodel Cindy Crawford has said that she “would not have be converted into a supermodel in 2009? because she had too “common” a body to achieve something in today’s size zero gripped fashion industry. The 43-year-old Crawford was one of the uppermost paid glamour girls in the 1980s and 1990. “I would not have been converted into a supermodel in 2009. I give the impression of being too healthy,” the Send a Message to quoted her as saying. Cindy Crawford supplementary that her body “with big breasts, normal thighs and toned superior arms” is no longer what the industry wants today. However, Crawford is quite happy in her skin. “That’s why I like being in my 40s so much. Being at stillness with yourself, meaningful regarding your strengths further than being nice-looking.”

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Luella Bartley, the Warwick-shire-born stylish integral to the topical transformation of British Fashion, has turn out to be a surprise victim of the recession. Her eponymous label has been necessary out of business after one of its main suppliers closed. It is a shock to those who have followed the development of Bartley, Designer of the Year at the British Fashion Awards in 2008. On Monday night, it was still publicity as customary: she hosted a party at the London store Liberty, where she has calculated the Christmas grotto and transom display. “This is a very second-rate situation for everyone involved,” she said yesterday. “I have had an incredible team approximately me… and it is disturbing not to be able to protect jobs in this difficult monetary climate.” Known for its characteristic and humorous mix of punk particulars and party dresses, Luella is the label of choice for the streetwise British girl-about-town and is regularly worn by London gossip-page royalty Alexa Chung, Lily Allen and the Geldof sisters. The designer once described her look as “the kind of clothes you can get drunk and fall over in”. The closure last month of Luella’s Italian manufacture corporation, Carla Carini, meant that orders for the label’s spring/summer 2010 collection could not be fulfilled – and so the Singapore-based company in indict of distributing Bartley’s clothing and garnishes, VSQ, publicize that it had “reluctantly” decided to withdraw its backing. Five people in her design studio and 13 in giving out face losing their jobs. Bartley launched Luella in 1999. Her fusion of traditional British influences – Crombie coats and hunting jackets – with idiosyncratic modern details chimed with a nascent Cool Britannia 2.0 movement. She opened her flagship store on Mayfair’s Brook Street in 2007. She joins Christian Lacroix and Yohji Yamamoto on the list of fashion names hit by the downturn this year. Bartley’s range is known for its accessibility, and it seems hopeful that investors will see the label’s profitable possible. She is a victim of knock-on effects of the credit crunch, rather than guilty of unprofessional conduct or lack of vision. Luella handbags, hair garnishes and leather goods sell well; the dresses – around £500 each – may not be cheap but they are popular in boutiques as well as up-market high road stockiest; and her range of graphic T-shirts provide a “way in” to the brand at a junior price. One of this season’s designs depicts a concerned caricature pyramid scheme holding tightly on to a bag of US dollars. She said she hoped to revive the label. “I love the Luella quality,” she added yesterday, “and hope that… the Luella girl can have an exciting future.” Bartley, who worked as a journalist at the Evening Standard and Vogue before becoming a designer, lives in Cornwall with her three children and her partner, the trend photographer David Sims?

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They have haggard up battle strategy with military exactitude, enlist friends and family as shopping comrades and plan to come armed with announcement devices for the battleground. No, it’s not Boxing Day shopping. But for those with a fetish for designer shoes stuck on a shoestring budget, it will feel like it. This Saturday marks the global launch of the highly anticipated Jimmy Choo for H&M anthology. Here in Toronto, the limited- edition designer collaboration between the luxury shoe make and the contemptible and chic retailer will be available only at the Bloor St. W. and Eaton Centre location. “It’s going to be chaos. Five times the pandemonium!” says fashion stylist Ryan Weaving. He and four friends will take shifts beginning at 5 a.m. in the lineup at the Eaton Centre store. Anticipation has been building for months. All those Choo signatures sexy stilettos, thigh-high leather boots and animal print bags will be accessible, along with the first Jimmy Choo men’s shoes and the first Jimmy Choo fashion line. Weaving has done his research, poring over the H&M website, figuring out the sizing charts and questioning the store’s employees. It’s paid off: He got the inside track on details.

For example, at the Eaton Centre store, the footwear the hot-ticket items is on the underground room level while the clothing will be on the street level. He also knows that the first 160 people in line will be given wristbands with a specific time to shop just in the shoe department. And each customer will not be allowable to buy more than one of the same item. The strategizing is necessary, known the attractiveness of H&M’s past fashionable collaboration with Karl Lagerfeld, Roberto Cavalli, Viktor & Rolf, and Stella McCartney and, this year, Matthew Williamson. No matter what the city, people lined up, some camping out overnight, waiting for stores to open. In Toronto, the racks were picked bare in minutes. Some of the stuff appeared on eBay within hours, selling for triple, or more, the original price. An experienced person of the high-low expensive game, H&M threw fashionistas into frenzy when it announced a few months ago that the next collaboration would be with Jimmy Choo. The shoe label exploded after being featured on the television series Sex and the City, becoming an unexpectedly feeling for ultra-sexy stilettos. The cobbler Jimmy Choo sold his name and companionship years ago to Tamara Mellon, a exciting, jet-setting factory owner based in London who instinctively understood women would love the kind of shoes she favoured vampy, sexy and with a hint of rock chic. Which is why woman-about-town Natalie Gee will be there at dawn? “I’m a big fan of Tamara Mellon. I think she is an implausible and commanding businesswoman and she has been raving about the clothes and the bags particularly,” says Gee. She has this piece of advice for shoppers on Saturday: “Don’t go for everything. Do your explore and find one or two things you really love and then grab those. The thing about great style is having one fabulous item and making it work a million different ways.” Another avid consumer with a plan is road and rail complex student and Holt Renfrew imprison Amina Said. She is sending her sister to the Eaton Centre location while she tackles the crowd at Bloor St. They table on communicating via BlackBerry, sending pictures back and forth on what they are able to get their hands on. Sure there are folks who can’t fathom receiving up at dawn to line up outer surface a clothing store. But for people like Said, it isn’t optional. “Yes, there are a lot of things we can live without. But it’s about what you’re an authority of what each human being appreciates. I happen to love fashion. I would never line up for Jay-Z tickets, but other people supremacy. But this is what I’ll paddle for.”

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Do my clothes hold anything by Luella Bartley? One of the bags she intended for Mulberry back in 2003, perhaps? No. Too many pockets and fiddly bits. One of her own Gisele bags? No. Far too expensive. A trouser suit covered in the alphabet? Oh dear God no. Personally, I have always found the designer, who announced last week that her label has ceased trade, to epitomize the worst of British fashion. Disproportionately huge amounts of praise from the fashion press, legions of famous person followers, but very little real wear ability. After studying fashion at St Martins, Luella Bartley worked first in the fashion departments of the London Evening Standard and Vogue before she left, on a drunken dare, to set up her own label. Her first collection, for mechanism/summer 2000, was a British-inspired collection entitled Daddy, I Want a Pony and was shown at her friend’s flat; her model mates gave their services free of charge. The fashion press adored her take on the English eccentric: floral sprigged frocks and slim line mod suits, all with a hint of tomboyish punk. They loved her rock-chick cool, her messy blonde hair, her gaggle of photogenic children and photographer husband. And then it all went horribly wrong. Last Wednesday, Luella Bartley Limited was forced out of business after its main investor and global licensee, Club 21, withdrew financial backing. The label was also hit by the recent collapse of Carla Carini, an Italian manufacturer that made her products.  This means Luella Bartley is unable to deliver orders for her spring/summer 2010 collection, which is a huge shame, given it was her strongest showing yet:  ’Where for the past few seasons every dress had been multicolored, flower-printed, beribboned, buckled, or frilled up in various pop-ironic ways, for this outing her clothes have become almost straightforward, in a mid-Sixties Sunday best sort of way,’ trumpeted Style.com. Note that I am quoting Style.com for the glowing verdict on Luella’s final show. I begged for a ticket, but was told I would not be welcome. Even during a global recession, the designers, the fashion press and the PRs still set too much store by how cool and ‘niche’ a label is, whether or not Pixie Geldof and Alexa Chung are perched in the front row, and which DJ is spinning the tune at the after-party. This newspaper was deemed too ‘ conventional’ to view what would turn out to be her final collection, while I was judged too potentially critical. The thing is, I don’t care how cool the clothes are. What we really want to know is: are they well made, do they fit, and what is the provenance of the fabrics? Will they look smart for work, sexy on a date, and will they last and demonstrate good value or will they fall apart? Sadly, these supplies seem to take second place when it comes to British fashion. Take the clamour that surrounded the show by Henry Holland during London Fashion Week in September. The clothes did not live up to the hype. I attended the explain. God only knows how or why I was owed a ticket, but I was. But I was not allocated a ticket for Matthew Williamson, or Jonathan Saunders (I was once forcibly expelled from one of his London shows), Antonio Berardi, Duro Olowu, Giles Deacon or Christopher Kane. Frustrated beyond belief at the end of London Fashion Week’s 25th anniversary celebrations, I wrote to the chairman of the British Fashion Council, Jaeger boss Harold Tillman, complaining at the attitude of the designers and their publicists. ‘While I commend your efforts to put London Fashion Week on the world stage, I must tell you it remains elitist, putting being “trendy” before its more important role as an company of very a lot of people in retail jobs.’ I also pointed out to Harold Tillman that I never have a problem with labels such as Dior, Chanel or Prada. I have not, as yet, customary a respond. It is disastrous for everyone she employed that Luella Bartley has gone out of business, but it is a shame, too, that more reputable British names – such as Amanda Wakeley, Caroline Charles, Betty Jackson and Paul Costelloe –  are largely ignored by the fashion press, simply because they have fewer celebrity friends. I have written before about the fact that an ‘edgy’ (what an awful word) male stylist, upon leaving a classically beautiful Jasper Conran show, sighed: ‘I don’t see the point of Jasper Conran.’ That is the sort of exasperating, out-of-touch attitude that will be the death of our home-grown industry. British fashion schools manufacture so many young people with talent. London has always led the way when it comes to new ideas. But if we want our industry to succeed, it needs to have more substance and much less style. Why not encourage our art schools and fashion colleges to concentrate on skills such as weaving and spinning and prototype cutting, not new wacky ways with stretch PVC? One of the reasons Stella McCartney has flourish is for the reason that she honed her dressmaking skills on Savile Row. Paul Smith is another rare British accomplishment fairy-tale. The brand has doubled its turnover in the past five years, posting a 15 per cent rise in profits in 2008. You could never imagine Smith embarking on anything for a drunken dare. The 63-year-old said recently, ‘I’ve always preferred the creative process of designing and selling clothes to the idea of putting on a poncey fashion show. It’s their 15 minutes of fame: pure, self-indulgent theatre. How many girls was there this year in horns or neck braces with bare breasts? It wouldn’t matter if they didn’t take it all so seriously, but the fashion world is a dangerous, superficial and fickle place.’ In September 2007 I wrote on these pages: ‘I find it unaccommodating and frankly suicidal that new stars including Duro Olowu, Marios Schwab and Jonathan Saunders barred me from their shows, preferring to put a ceiling on the guest list to fashion editors from cutting-edge magazines with plenty of cool but absolutely no readers; some of these designers will inevitably go bust.’ London’s craving to be ‘cool’ above all else has just claimed yet another martyr.

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