New stars and welcome returns for London Fashion Week

Acne, Burberry, Giles Deacon and young talents included on official London Fashion Week schedule.

Looks from Burberry and Acne AW10 collections (left and right); British designer Giles Deacon, who will be returning to London Fashion Week; and designer Hussein Chalayan Photo: REX

The Swedish design powerhouse, Acne, and the NewGen hot talents, Holly Fulton, David Koma and Michael Van Der Ham, will all make their catwalk debuts at London Fashion Week in September.

The British designer, Giles Deacon, recently appointed the creative director of the Paris house of Emanuel Ungaro, will also return to the LFW scene, following two seasons in the French capital, after winning the prestigious ANDAM award.

In addition, Burberry Prorsum, designed by Christopher Bailey, Antonio Berardi, Matthew Williamson, Pringle of Scotland, and Jonathan Saunders have all confirmed their commitment to a third consecutive season on the London fashion stage.

The details, released by the British Fashion Council, promise one of the most excitement lineups of recent years for London Fashion Week, which runs from September 17th to 22nd, at its headquarters at Somerset House.

The first day of London Fashion Week will feature a further fashion surprise in the form of avant-garde designer Hussein Chalayan’s exhibition, ‘B-side’, at the Spring Projects Gallery, in Kentish Town. The exhibition, divided into three segments - Micro Geography, A Cross Section, and Anaesthetics & Inertia - will showcase Chalayan’s exploration into the body, movement and voyeurism, and will feature new works, sculpture, film and animation. Chalayan, MBE, winner of the British Designer of the Year title in both 1999 and 2000, has been showing his ready-to-wear collections in Paris since 2001.

Other draws on the London Fashion Week schedule include the first winner of the BFC and Vogue’s Designer Fashion Fund award, Erdem; Christopher Kane; Marios Schwab; and Richard Nicoll, alongside established and iconic designers such as Jasper Conran, Margaret Howell, Paul Smith, Betty Jackson, and Vivienne Westwood with her funky Red Label.

Acne, the Swedish newcomer to LFW, which opens its London ‘Studio’ flagship, on Dover Street, W1, tonight (July 15th), has developed a cult following since its 1997 debut with an award-winning signature collection of streetwise denim and leather. “For me, London has a great energy and momentumn at this moment,” said Jonny Johansson, Acne’s creative director. “I love the English way of clashing heritage and contemporary.”

Along with Fulton, Koma and Van Der Ham, other young designers showing under the Topshop-sponsored NewGen scheme include Mary Katrantzou and Peter Pilotto, with the Fashion Forward winner, Louise Gray, and Craig Lawrence showing their collections in a presentation format.

London Fashion Week also features NewGen menswear designers such as James Long, Christopher Shannon and JW Anderson, alongside the Savile Row tailoring of Ozwald Boateng.