picture Josh Goot Spring Summer 09 - www.style.com 

I love British fashion and like to take a keen interest to new comers and up and coming talent in London. Here are some of my favourites that I will be watching for 2009.

Charles Anastase -a French illustrator and designer who is obsessed by the renaissance. His clothes are inspired by fairytales, art and psycho analysis. For spring summer 09, his collection is inspired by Degas ballerinas and Lolita.

Emma Cook - Tipped as Londons next big thing and following in the footsteps of Hussein Chalayan and Alexander McQueen, Emma designs feminine and intricate clothes that are not too girly and frou frou.

Josh Goot - an Australian designer who debuted at London fashion week in September last year. He has become well known for his jersey separates. This season, I love his watercolour prints and bright mini capes in jersey.

Peter Pilotto - This design duo includes Austrian Peter Pilotto known for his amazing prints and Libyan Chris de Grot know for his expert draping.

Simone Shailes - A central St Martins graduate who has gained recognition for her chunky and textured knitwear.

These talented newcomers could well follow in the footsteps of more established London designers like Alexander McQueen. I love this Alexander McQueen draped top.

It’s not just London, Paris, New York and Milan that have fashion weeks. There are infact fashion weeks all ove rthe world with the Lakme India Fashion week happening as I speak (or type). With Bollywood,  the traditional Indian cinema enjoying a surge in world wide popularity, India is becoming centre stage for glitz and glamour. Some of the countries big Bollywood stars were there at Lakme Fashion week. Here are some of the fashion highlights:

Narendra Kumar graduated from National Institute of Fashion Technology (1990) which was run  in conjunction with FIT, New York and Trent Polytechnic, UK.

Aastha Bahl founded her own label ‘Mistletoe’ in 2004 following her graduation from N.I.F.T. New Delhi. She specialises in contemporary, minimalist and easy to wear clothes.

Krishna Mehta is the creative director of  her brand ‘Krishna Mehta’,which was established in 1988. It is one of the fastest growing designer brands in India with a international following.

Kallol Datta a graduate of Fashion Design from NIFT, Kolkata in 2004 and Central St Martins in 2006. He also freelanced as a fashion stylist whilst at college.

pictures from  www.bharattextile.com

If you love the rich colours and fabrics of the clothes at Lakme India Fashion Week, you will love this Fairtrade Recycled Sari Shoulder Bag.

I found this Youtube video for the Hannah Marshall Autumn Winter 08 collection. I love the show the music is great, thepowerful silhouettes are great and most of all I love the bird perched on the models head. Looks . This is a great look, sleek and minimalistic but interesting with contrasting textures and luxurious fabrics. There is also lots of black which is every where this season as I mentioned in my last post.

Hannah got a first class degree at Colchester School of Art and design before gaining a wealth of experience with some top designers. She has now proved that she can go it alone and is actually a very sucessful designer and entrepeneur in her own right. She has now produced three collections for her own label and they are proving to be a big hit with mentions in British Vogue and American Elle amongst other publications. All of her designs incorporate a trademark braille message which was developedd due to a curosity of a devlopmental fusion of clothing and communication. At just 25 Hannah has achieved a huge amount including  recognition by New Generation sponsored by Top Shop at London Fashion Week.

If you like the sleek and powerful silhouettes in Hannah’s collection you will love this Boudoir by Disaya Black Dress.

ITS or International Talent Support is an organisation which gives visibility, support and a voice to young talent all over the world. It allows creative types to get financial opportunities and work placements as well as having their work judged by a panel of experts. My main interests are the fashion and accessory competitions.The fashion competition is in its seventh edition and is for final year students of fashion design schools. It is a great way for fashion students to find placements and designers to fill jobs. The accessories competition is in its third year and is the only competition of it’s type in the world. Each year finalist are added to the database of talent which is accessible to anyone, anywhere for free of charge. So guess what I couldn’t help but have a little look and here are some of the delights that I found.