Shilpa Rajan is a Wembley-based fashion designer who recently showcased her very first collection from her House of Bilimoria label. She stands out for us not just because of her beautiful clothes, but her love of the craft involved in the process of fashion design and her commitment to ethical practices. We caught up with Shilpa after her show at the Fashion Diversity event at the Museum of London. Bilimoria is my maiden name,......

Pictures taken by Londonist's Natalie Ujuk Diverse was certainly the name of the sartorial game at this alternative fashion week event. The show was awash with inspiration from different cultures and historical periods, including American retro, moody military, 90s bling, Eastern architecture and teases of swinging baby doll chic. Along with a full-range of classic and not-so-classic cuts - the puffball and the pencil, the 20s dropped waist and the 50s cinched one, the basque......

Fashionistas were out in force this past week for London Fashion Week. STYLEist manages to capture some street style off the catwalk.......

We're sorry, Ms. (Janet) Jackson, but celebrity fashion lines are usually a wardrobe malfunction of the highest order: throw a star and a bunch of fancy garms together, and hope gawping sleb-sessed punters will part with cash on dubious trends. Yet André 3000 (née Benjamin) of OutKast holds a little more credibility. Over the years he's furrowed an idiosyncratic line in Thirties dandy-wear and collegiate apparel. His new Benjamin Bixby label, launched at a lavish......

Vauxhall Fashion Scout is a showcase of the top emerging fashion designers in the UK and is located right near the heart of London Fashion Week in South Kensington. STYLEist takes a peek inside with designer Xterity London fashion show in progress.......

There’s no need to sell your soul to the devil for a ticket to a London Fashion Week show, even if he is wearing Prada. Luckily there's another chance to experience the excitement of a live fashion show at a superb venue without crossing anyone’s palms with silver (or gold, or rustic coffee tones, which are the new black, btw). Friday and Saturday bring the sixties and seventies-inspired Fashion Diversity to the Museum of London,......

STYLEist takes a break from the streets of London and takes a peak into one of the London Fashion Week's On-Schedule catwalk shows in the British Fashion Council (BFC) Tent. Designer Amanda Wakeley's Spring Summer 09 Collection on the runway. Inspirations for this collection include Verushka, Safari Ready, Utilitarian Lux, Shaped by Japan. By Natalie Ujuk......

As London Fashion Week gets into full swing and celebrities, models and hangers-on sweep into town, we speak to a talented young designer who is working on something rather different. With a collective of up-and-coming designers, photographers, stylists and other creative individuals under the Untold moniker, Maame Baryeh will showcase her designs at an alternative event to LFW at the Museum of London on Friday and Saturday. She talks to us about hard work,......

The boys are back in town – Robert de Niro and Al Pacino were in London last night to launch their new film Righteous Kill. It’s London Fashion Week. Are we bothered? Well, we just thought you’d like to know, that’s all. The North London Line upgrade has been downgraded. Like we said, we blame CrossRail. They haven’t had a very nice day in the City today. The Whittington Hospital has lost personal data......

Yesterday we brought you the disappointing news that the mayor will continue to fund the British Fashion Council, despite their flip-flopping around the size zero issue. In the second of our special articles in the lead-up to London Fashion Week, we talk to Eleni Renton, founder of Quintessentially Models - the ‘ethical’ model agency - who is working to change the shape of the fashion industry and its attitude towards size zero models. Hello......

Yesterday heralded a City Hall address from London Assembly Member Dee Docey to mayor Boris Johnson, to ask him to stop funding to the British Fashion Council (BFC) unless they banned dangerously skinny models from London's catwalks. Sadly we've now heard that the mayor has refused, preventing London from taking the progressive stance that other fashion capitals have taken. He argued, along with the BFC, that health certificates would be too much of an......

Last month the Londonist brought you the news that the British Fashion Council (BFC) had decided not implement a recommendation from the independent Model Health Inquiry to issue models with a health certificate to verify that their body mass index (BMI) is healthy. This would have meant that models with a very low BMI, which signifies an increased risk of eating disorders, would be banned from working at London Fashion Week. The BFC's refusal......

Pollution pulverised—well, not exactly, but Ken announces hefty £25 C-Charge for heaviest polluting vehicles. Fresh criticism of the “angular mass”—no, not the razor-sharp hip bones on London Fashion Week models. Rather, English Heritage have some sharp words for Doon Street Tower plan. We’re absurdly wealthy. Well, we’re not. But some people in this city apparently are. “Someone else” blamed for the £90,000 worth of Fortnum and Mason merchandise gone missing during a saleswoman’s work......

Londonist may know nothing and care even less about London Fashion Week, but that won't stop us cartwheeling down the nearest catwalk and devouring garms and gimcracks galore like fickle fashionistas on fascistic diets tearing each others' hair extensions at a Primark opening. The Times has offered a handy cut out and keep (for lunch, perhaps, paper being low in calories) guide to 18 trends for London Fashion Week. Sadly one of those trends......

As Camden is recognised as a musos’ haven, Ken pledges cash for the rebuild. Silly bitch niece is banged up for life for killing her poor 100 year old aunt. Over her inheritance. Doherty is putting it around (his guitar, of course), with gigs here and there. Kings College is developing some good news for diabetes sufferers. London Fashion Week carries on in spite of Londonist apathy: apparently Conran’s a hit. Piccie courtesy of......

We’re sticking to our laurels – we just don’t care about London Fashion Week. But we do care about Prince, our Purple Hero of Pop. Thus, this morning, we cast our eye for a protracted second on a more enjoyable fashionista blurb – “Prince wows London fashion elite.” Turns out the artist formally known as Prince not only joined Matthew Williamson’s show, but stole it, leaping onto the stage to cajole all with his......

Londonist doesn't care about London Fashion Week. Not really. But we're a blog about London and it's pretty big so we thought we'd write something about it. Here's some of the things that might happen over the next week: Mobile phone shops will see a rise in profits as Supermodels break them in fits of rage. The lettuce leaf and grape diet will be born. People we don't know and whose name we can't......

Trendy Notting Hill restaurant Bumpkin has solved the problem of dangerously thin supermodels. Apparently, the reason some fashion models are so catastrophically thin is: They can't afford food. Who knew? So, during the current London Fashion Week, Bumpkin will be offering them FREE FOOD. Models with a Body Mass Index of less than 18 will be allowed to stuff their faces free of charge (unclear if they have to pay for booze or not).......

As London Fashion Week struts onto the headlines catwalk, the debate over whether fashion models are too thin took another thrilling turn when Sasha Wilkins, fashion editor for The Observer Magazine, observed that, no, they weren't too thin. However, on Saturday, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, said that, yes, they were too thin. Somebody somewhere tried to divert the discussion toward the national problem of life-threatening disorders like bulemia and anorexia, and how those afflictions......

Well, London Fashion Week begins today and the first story of the week isn't the usual Is London still fashionable nonsense, but something slightly less shallow: thin models. On one side you've got Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, who wants the LFW organisers to ban what she calls "stick-thin" models from its catwalks. And on the other side you've got the British Fashion Council who run the whole shebang, saying that it's not their place......

A portrait by Pablo Picasso has gone on display at Christie's ahead of an auction which, if it goes as expected, will make it one of the top 10 most expensive paintings ever sold. We've spotted the first 'London Fashion Week isn't as good as it used to be' article - do we get a prize? Paul Gasgoigne went on a seven hour 'alcohol fuelled gambling binge' in London this week. London is facing......

Bomb plot latest: police have found "a suitcase containing items which could be used to construct a bomb," in a piece of land in High Wycombe. An elderly passenger who travelled from Lincoln to London on a National Express coach (a four hour journey) has collapsed and died from deep vein thrombosis. Indymedia have a copy of Ken's automated reply which gets sent out to anyone enquiring about the plans to register cycles. Marks......

Met officers of all ranks can now be screened for drugs becasue "The use of illegal substances... is proven to impair the judgement and performance of an individual." London Fashion Week kicks off this week with a big show at the Natural History Museum. Prepare yourselves for the inevitable 'Is British Fashion History?' headlines. City high flyers are being advised to 'dress down' for their commute to London as their bonuses make them vulnerable to......

For the foodies who like their meals without any animal influence, there's a real treat in store. It's the London Vegan Festival this Sunday (25th September) and Kensington Town Hall will be packed to the rafters with meat-free goodness. Celebrate veganism with like-minded people enjoying lots and lots of lovely food and drink, and also music, speakers, campaigning and rescue groups and the chance to meet the best ethical suppliers around. Apart from the......

Here we go again then with London Fashion Week. Don't get us wrong, we have nothing against fashion (although it may have a few questions to ask us one day, but that's a different matter). It's just LFW brings up the same tired old debates every year. For example: fur. Yes, we've already had our first London Fashion Week Disrupted by Protestors headline, and things only kicked off yesterday. PETA members were escorted out......

We seem to have a bit of an obsession with the ICA this week, but they have simply been putting on some excellent events. Friday 21Media and Deal Real Records are launching The Art of Hip-Hop with Fashion vs. Turntablism. This is the ICA's attempt at incorporating London Fashion Week into their space we suppose. The programme describes the evening as a night of dance, turntabling, and hip-hop influenced fashion. We can't help but get......

Yes, this week sees the beginning London Fashion Week, and already the usual issues are raising their heads. First, the amount of fur on show at the exhibition has angered many, including protest group PETA who reacted against Julien Macdonalds's collection, which included fox, chinchilla, mink and sable furs. The other perennial LFW story is, of course, the state of the UK fashion industry and how we're standing up against New York, Milan and......