THE late Diana Vreeland, a fashion editor much given to making pronouncements, once commented that pink was the navy blue of India. At the risk of sounding equally fatuous, it's worth remarking that next winter, brown looks like being the black of London. This isn't, of course, to suggest that fashion's favourite colour might be in danger of disappearing altogether - but at London Fashion Week, the trend for next season was distinctly towards shades of chocolate and coffee, just as a year ago it was the turn of camel and beige.

Nobody seemed immune to this trend. In Paul Costelloe's latest collection, for example, the Dressage range featured window pane checks in these colours for suits designed with short boxy jackets and skirts just to the knee. Then there were cafe au lait slim fitted trousers served up with jackets in a bold leopardskin print (Mr Costelloe is evidently in the mood for a safari, as he also included jaw" zebra in his show). Similarly, two of the young designer duos which are so central to the London scene at the moment chose to explore brown, a colour which has not, of late, had much of a following.

There should be no surprise that Clements Ribeiro opted so heavily for coffee, since one half of this partnership is Brazilian. The latest collection included delicious coffee toned cashmere coats with generous collars, worn over gentle A line skirts in beige wool and lightweight cashmere sweaters in a deeper shade from the same spectrum. Bitter chocolate knee length button through coat dresses and deep V neck chestnut cashmere tunics worn over black and coffee printed silk skirts to the knee also underlined the importance of brown.

So too at Pearce Fionda, a design team which is only two years old but has already acquired a loyal following (it's also now stocked by Brown Thomas). The new collection includes fine satin back crepe bias cut dresses with cap sleeves in rich chocolate, and romantic silk crepe dresses with scoop necklines that drape in seductive folds at the back. The flat fronted narrow legged trousers that turned up everywhere were included in this collection too, in a deep brown wool.

However, if you prefer to consume rather than wear coffee and chocolate, there is an alternative option for the season ahead - and that's an equally rich range of dark blues. Bella Freud chose midnight blue for satin flared trousers teamed with a double vented and severely darted black wool jacket. She also produced one of her archetypal dainty suits in a much paler shade of blue wool, with short jackets and skirt fitting snugly to the knee. Copperwheat Blundell another of London's current double acts - were feeling pretty blue too, at times, with a navy cashmere patch pocket jacket buttoning high and falling to just below the hip worn with matching knee length skirt. The same designers also included a royal blue nylon short biker jacket and deep navy pants that flared softly from the knee.

Meanwhile, Betty Jackson used blue throughout her show. There were midnight blue belted tunics in crushed velvet with black silk crepe pants beneath, tight fitting collared cardigans of a similar knee length with matching Prussian blue trousers and ink blue shantung hipsters topped by much paler toned skinny ribbed sweaters. Full length sheepskin coats came in the same deep tones of blue, as did big loose knit polo neck knits and even long sleeved shift dresses in silk crepe.

It came as no surprise to see Amanda Wakeley using blue, as she's always been a fan of this colour. For next season, she offers it in a high fastening collarless midnight blue suede fingertip length belted coat shown over sky blue leather pants. Similar trousers (in black suede) were teamed with a collarless wool crepe jacket; the same fabric in navy was employed for a simple shirt dress with open V neck at the front and single vent at the back. Less understated were Wakeley's silk crepe dresses in shades of midnight blue, their scoop necklines banded with a length of satin in the same colour.

This was a collection more gamine than usual for the designer, but that's the mood ahead as far as London is concerned; the spirit of intense glamour pursued a year ago has now been replaced by a softer, more youthful mood exemplified by Fashion Week's favourite model, crop haired Honor Fraser (sister of the current Lord Lovat) who turned up at almost every show. Her prettiness is almost boyish and therefore ideally suited for the rather masculine tailoring which has also been a feature of the new collections.

COATS, for example, typically came with close fitting but distinctly square shoulders and were down to the ankles at Amanda Wakeley, Pearce Fionda and Nicole Farhi. Katharine Hamnett (who couldn't resist blue either, with a heavy cable knit mohair sweater in navy and sequin short skirt in the same shade) epitomised the general trend with an ankle skimming coat that sat close on the torso and then flared out from the waist.

Hamnett caught the tailoring mood too, with a trouser suit in watered taffeta; typically for next autumn/winter, its jacket is high buttoning, narrow shouldered and lightly flaring at the hips while the trousers are pencil slim. Fine tailoring skills were also demonstrated by Hussein Chalayan, one of London's current stars who, after a rather poor showing last season, produced a collection full of wearable, sellable and downright commercial clothes.

Among the highlights of his show were a knee length dress in grey flannel with diagonal pleats at the bust where the fabric changes to turquoise chiffon, tying at the neckline, and a short blue taffeta dress with square neck, three quarter length sleeves and seductive authority as it clung to the body. The art of the tailor was also manifest in Chalayan's blue wool crepe collarless jacket, cut sharp at the waist and then flaring out in a series of inverted pleats.

But the undisputed master cutter at the latest London Fashion Week was the relatively new talent Alexander McQueen. A designer who longs to be iconoclastic (he's noted for exposing breasts and buttocks), McQueen can't help but show that actually he is a real talent who is already showing signs of maturity. This season, he showed his new collection in Hawksmoor's masterpiece - Christ Church in Spitalfields - and, as though inspired by the surroundings, the designer turned into an architect of the body. Often the finest pieces were the simplest, such as understated grey flannel hipster trousers and cropped and belted black wool coats with enormous turned back collars and sleeves that flared out towards the cuff.

But as if to demonstrate that he can do anything, McQueen offered a grey flannel jumpsuit with only one sleeve, so cut that its collar folded neatly around one armpit before buttoning beneath the bust. In the same fabric came a shirt dress which changed fabric mid sleeve to jersey while the skirt could be unbuttoned on the diagonal as it dipped into an asymmetric hem.

Even McQueen, though, isn't totally immune to what other designers are doing at the moment - and so he, too, produced the slim fit trouser suit. Admittedly it came in black and not brown and its flared trousers came with deep button fastening turn ups, but otherwise it was quite indisputably in the spirit of London, Fashion Week.