The Return of London Fashion Week

Provisional dates for London's fashion week are 16-23 September 2007. Fashion weeks tend to be held several months before the season, which gives press and buyers a chance to preview designs in advance. The last London Fashion Week was a huge success, bringing more than £100 million worth of business to London. Expectation is high for the next event, which many hope will be just as successful.

What We Can Expect

It's the first fashion week since top stylist Isabella Blow died in May. As Blow kick-started the careers of both Philip Treacy and Alexander McQueen, we're expecting to see many tributes. Models such as Lily Cole, Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Agyness Deyne are being lined up to sashay down the catwalk in the latest designs.

The last London Fashion Week in February 2007 was a huge success with £40 million worth of orders and a huge £24 million of media coverage. Following London Fashion Week will be London Fashion Weekend, which takes place at the Natural History Museum and offers visitors the opportunity to purchase designer clothes at sales prices.

Next Season Predictions

We're eagerly anticipating next season's trends. Will next summer prove to be the season for you to dust off your capri pants? Who knows!

The Designers

Luella Bartley will show her Spring/Summer 2008 collection at fashion week, which also coincides with the launch of her new flagship store in Mayfair. It’s unclear whether Vivienne Westwood is showing this year but if she does, we never fail to be impressed by the grand dame of fashion.

It was Marc Jacobs in February but who will be the talk of Fashion Week in September? Fashion week favourite Hussein Chalayan should be returning with a collection that promises a blend of simplicity and volume. There are also rumours that John Galliano is returning to London with another one of his spectacularly outlandish collections. Inspired by the French Revolution, one of his last shows featured a realistic-looking guillotine and so we’re can’t wait to see what he’ll do this time. Hot young designer Henry Holland is also one to look out for. His cheeky House of Holland label is guaranteed to raise a smile with bitchy slogan t-shirts and androgynous styling. Needless to say, we're expecting Julien McDonald to dazzle us with a glamourous Givenchy show.

The Fashion Industry and Model’s Health

Since the death of catwalk models Luisel Ramos and Ana Carolina Reston, fashion bosses have been under increasing pressure to ban size zero models. However, it's unclear whether they plan to do this at fashion week. However, the organisers of Madrid Fashion Week 2006 banned models with a Body Mass Index below 18 and pressure is mounting on London Fashion Week bosses to do the same.

The Independent Model Health Inquiry has also found it "profoundly inappropriate" that young girls should be portrayed as adult women on the catwalk and have called for them to be banned from fashion week. However, it is unclear whether they will be. Lily Cole, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell all modelled before their sixteenth birthday but should they have been allowed to?

Discover More about Fashion Week

If you’re eager for more news and gossip, stay tuned. We'll be at the shows in September, bringing you the hottest looks straight from the catwalk.

Author: Tania Machowska is a former model with experience of catwalk and catalogue modelling. For the past four years she's been contributing to websites such as http://www.chemodels.com, Brussels Model Agency.

meFashion 2007