STYLE FRIDAY: Duo with designs on fashion

London Fashion Week may have ended but two homegrown talents are already preparing for their next catwalk show.

Celebrities and top designers flocked to the capital where it’s as much about who’s sitting in the front row as it is about the dresses.

Britain’s hottest designers showcased their wares at the glamorous show at London’s Somerset House when Christopher Kane and Jonathan Saunders flew the flag for Glasgow.

Christopher Kane, 27, originally from Newarthill, near Motherwell, is one of the country’s most talked-about young talents.

His success began while still a student at London’s prestigious Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design when his degree collection of stretch-lace dresses won him a Harrods Design Award and a window display at London’s most recognisable department store.

When US Vogue’s editor-in-chief Anna Wintour attended the show and suggested he meet Donatella Versace, it was safe to say that he was on his way to the top.

Kane has now launched his own label, designed three collections for Topshop and is a consultant for the Versace label, Versus. His edgy style and knack of blending different materials and genres has won him a huge celebrity fan base including Kate Moss, Kylie Minogue and Chloe Sevigny.

There was also great anticipation among the country’s best-dressed for Jonathan Saunders’ spring collection. He first gained recognition from the fashion world after Alexander McQueen snapped him up within 48 hours of his graduation from Glasgow School of Art in 1999.

With a BA in print textiles, Rutherglen-born Saunders, 33, went on to the intensive MA design course at Central Saint Martin’s. His colourful collections of prints predated Britain’s present enthusiasm for colours and patterns, and his bird of paradise print for McQueen became the most photographed catwalk look of 2005. The same year, he was Scottish Fashion Designer of the Year, and has since designed for Gola footwear and Topshop.

His exuberant dresses have been seen on Madonna and Sienna Miller, and Kylie Minogue was on the cover of Vogue wearing one of his creations. Anna Wintour, Allegra Versace, Phillip Green, Carine Roitfeld, Naomi Campbell and young fashionista Emma Watson made these two Glasgow designers’ front rows truly star-studded.