London

This London Fashion Week is shaping up to be one of the strongest in seasons, what with the best show Giles has ever produced, some remarkable new talent in the form of Christopher Kane and Danielle Scutt and a few golden oldies – Biba and Zandra Rhodes - making spectacular comebacks. By the time it got to Thursday it looked like all the best bits had been and gone.

So, there I am, 6pm at the BFC tent in South Kensington. Epicentre of London Fashion Week, nerve centre of British style for one week only... and not a bloody soul to be seen. A bale of tumbleweed hurtles towards me - er no it’s just a fugitive hairball from Suzy Menkes’ quiff - but you get the picture. Following a Wednesday of high fashion frivolities and hype, reaching fever pitch at Christopher Kane, Giles and Marios Schwab, the fashion pack appear to have, well, packed it in. Feature continues

Making an exception to the creed I live by, of never entering tents, I wander in to the BFC exhibition area to find some fashion types to talk to... or ANYONE to talk to. Pickings are slimmer than a Christopher Kane silhouette. Having declined to talk to the chaps at Nuts, who have picked up on the great weight debate by setting up outside with a pie stand, (hilarious), I find a singularly diligent stylist who says it has been much the same all day: ‘Everyone showing [Nicole Farhi, Amanda Wakeley, Margaret Howell] has been a bit staid and sedate, so the more cutting edge press have just stayed at home to nurse their hangovers.’ And presumably, started the long and intensive beautification process of getting ready for tonight’s Armani party, although it's becoming increasingly hard to find anyone who has actually been invited. So many invitations have been lost in the post, that we imagine a 2000 strong crowd of postmen, whooping it up at Giorgio’s expense, but no press. Presumably Beyonce and Bono will be reviewing the collections.

However, the chasm in the high fashion scene means that some great younger designers have a fighting chance of getting full houses - as happened at Katarzyna Szczotarska and Laura Lees. The loveliness of Szczotarska’s collection really deserved some attention, with classic couture shapes reworked into very feminine but still modern forms. More masculine cuts were softened by rose prints, kimono coats sharpened up in houndstooth or stripes. This is the sort of thing you could imagine being worn by ladies who sashay - Scarlet Johansson, say, or Kelly Brook - who could fill out a foxy bow-backed pencil skirt. The magnificent stylist Immodesty Blaize cooes over the collection. ‘These are clothes for proper women, you know, curves and all.’ She announces. No doubt the boys at Nuts would be pleased to hear it.

Meanwhile Scottish designer Laura Lees showed a sweet collection of Americana-influenced girly playsuits, and dresses in pink ginghams, denims, and whites. In classic Laura Lees style, all came with nifty embroidered touches, which on closer inspection turned out to be little stitched Dolly Partons. Also notable were the finest goodie bags this week- the usual cosmetics were bolstered by the inclusion of crisps, chocs and other snacks, prompting the peculiar spectacle of an audience full of fashion types, (plus Gail Porter and Shola Ama) chomping their way through the show... so it’s not Moet with Diddy at Armani, but hey, kettle chips with Gail at Laura Lees isn’t all bad.

Look out for our London Fashion Week round-up, with the low-down on the best shows, top trends and juiciest gossip. Online Mon Sept 25