You can't have missed it: London Fashion Week, which starts on Monday, has been revamped, reorganised, and reborn - again. Why should you, the non-fashion people, care? Well, because along with Wimbledon, the film festival, and the Proms (plus the very occasional royal wedding), fashion week is one of the largest events London hosts and it brings huge amounts of money into the city. The British fashion industry, along with the music industry, is one of this country's biggest, most public, and most popular exporters. Fashion is part of Britain's international image and what happens to it matters.

And yet, fashion week often seems more like a local whipping boy than a jewel in our crown. Every season brings news that more home-grown designers have taken their label and decamped to the more chic pastures of New York (Matthew Williamson and Alice Temperley), Milan (Burberry and Pringle) or Paris (Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney). Every season brings news that most of the big international magazine editors and department store buyers are staying away. Still, fashion week struggles on.