New at Evans (www.evans.co.uk) is the Beth Ditto Clothing Collection the first celebrity clothing line designed with curvier women in mind.

Singer and Gossip star Ditto is a size 22 and proud of it, and she has put plus size onto the catwalk with this punk inspired collection in sizes 14 to 32.

“I wanted to make something special, just for us, something never seen before,” Beth says to her fellow plus-sizers.

Based in Stockholm Sweden, Acne Jeans is a leading denim brand, a division of the design company “Ambition to Create Novel Expressions” (ACNE). The Acne Jeans label was contrived in 1997 when ACNE produced a hundred pairs of jeans for distribution to friends, family and customers of the firm.

Sara Berman studied fashion design at Central St Martins College in London, and trained with Maria Grachvogel, her graduate collection was shown in the window at Fenwick’s in Bond Street and this really got her talents noticed.

In 1999 Sara took advantage of mother Hellene’s considerable business acumen and founded the Sara Berman label, the family affair was completed four years later when sister Aimee joined the fold.

Born Karl Anderson, Jr. in 1959, the son of Joan Krystosek Kors of New York City, a former model. Michael Kors began his career in fashion at the age of 19, he studied fashion design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and he was responsible for designing and merchandising a collection for the renowned boutique Lothar’s of New York.

Our purses are emptier. That we can be certain of. The credit crunch has well and truly taken hold of British shoppers, with this years Christmas spending forecast estimated at 17.8 per cent less than last year according to moneysupermarket.com. However, it is not just the content of our clutches which has been influenced by the current financial climate, but their design itself. Fashion, like any other industry, has been hit hard in recent times, and has been whipping out marketing strategies left right and centre in order to sashay through them. And given its usual flighty, transient and whimsical nature, an ideology which holds little sway during times of recession; it has had to work even harder than most.

Sir Richard Francis Burton would certainly be shocked by this season’s Lurex wet-look bodycon trend. However he would probably be equally surprised by the revived prevalence of a trend he was much more familiar with: the Harem trouser. A curious choice for today’s modern and fashionable woman; the style connotes female subservience and harks back to a long lost period of demureness. The silhouette drifted in from the East during the late 1800’s following the trepidant voyages of Burton and others, and was subsequently promoted in Europe by the French designer Paul Poiret in 1908. The French fashion pioneer used it as inspiration for a rich collection of high-waisted gowns, turbans and brightly coloured overcoats in luxurious fabrics that epitomised the oriental vogue of the era. The premier of Leon Baskt’s Ballet Russes, held in London in 1911, also drew European attention to the Eastern silhouette; boasting costumes inspired by Persian dress. Slowly and surely, early nineteenth century European fashions were being charmed by the lull and sweet song of the East; the style broke free from English stuffiness and eluded to a far more seductive and exotic culture than our young demi-mondelles were accustomed to.