LONDON FASHION WEEK: Yesterday morning, in the august surroundings of the Royal Academy in Mayfair, three new young generation British designers sponsored by Top Shop got the chance to present catwalk shows and their professional mettle to press and buyers.
The three, Gardem Demerdjian, a Lebanese Armenian from Beirut, Ebru Ercon, a British-born designer of Turkish descent, and Swash, two graduates of Central St Martin's, produced widely differing collections for winter 2005. Each had its strengths and surprises, but Gardem was outstanding.
His clothes, hand-dyed in earthy colours, harked back to the l8th century, but in a modern way. Highwayman coats flared over ballerina layers of thin and delicate tulles, nets, silks and chiffons.
Imagine Marie Antoinette in a firmly fitted black jacket, raggy skirts and long, loose hair. Chocolate leather jodhpurs and a tight, toreador jacket was another typical combination and accessories like crystal studded headphones, silver jewelled belts and mitts added witty, decorative touches.
Swash was more tricksy and playful, using marine rope to loop elements of a skirt together or to lace up a grey wool jacket.
Leg o'mutton trousers are not the most flattering clothing items and the Long John Silver look appeared self consciously laboured. Outsize bucket pockets, cropped academic gowns and a pink cable-knit coat with gold lamé trousers did little to excite the imagination either.
Ebru Ercom used robust materials like army blankets, rough hemp and denim to fashion some artful combinations that often worked in a folksy way like a black, empire-line pleated dress with a cutaway white blanket bolero and white beads.
Top Shop is currently the single biggest patron of young British designers, with an annual spend of around £1 million on practical, behind-the-scenes support.
"Everybody who is successful in the industry should give something back," their marketing manager, Jo Farrelly, told The Irish Times yesterday. "We would rather spend money on nurturing young talent than on advertising."
Valuable endorsement for Top Shop's own design label "Unique" came this week from the uber chic boutique, Corso Como in Italy, which is to Milan what Colette is to Paris. It ordered the complete collection from the British high-street chain.
Fashion retailing may be changing fast at the moment, but British designers continue to raid the past. Jessica Ogden's jaunty collection of Madras cotton checks and ginghams evoked the 50s and featured kimono tops, denim dungarees and big patchwork skirts with a certain Gallic twist. Handiwork like embroidery and quilting mark her style, and swing jackets added to the jaunty air of the whole collection notable for fuller sleeves, fuller skirts and child-like smock tops.
Betty Jackson had a reflective moment, too, with a collection, as polished as ever, that harked back to the 70s and hippy chic with sequined dresses, embroidered Afghan coats and cowboy boots.
But whether it was a neat cigar leather belted coat over narrow trousers or a flared check jacket over a full skirt, her sense of colour and proportion was as sharp and as chic as ever.