Blow for London in Fashion War with New York's Power Stylists ; with London Fashion Week Starting On Sunday, We Reveal How Its Future Is Today Under Threat As America's Top Designers Bulldoze Aside Our Home-Grown Shows

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THE MOOD inside the Portland Place headquarters of the British Fashion Council should have been ebullient yesterday. But as chief executive Hilary Riva and her team ran over the final details for their showcase bi-annual event, London Fashion Week, which kicks off on Sunday, it was instead all doom and gloom.

For weeks Riva has desperately put a brave face on the threat by New York Fashion Week to bulldoze London out of its slot. She has been schmoozing the trade press, saying: "We're still trying for a fair solution, I don't think anyone is setting out to deliberately damage London."

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Blow for London in Fashion War with New York's Power Stylists ; with London Fashion Week Starting On Sunday, We Reveal How Its Future Is Today Under Threat As America's Top Designers Bulldoze Aside Our Home-Grown Shows

The reality is that the Americans have been sharpening their stilettos. For today comes confirmation that Riva and the BFC have thrown in the towel and that the catwalk battle is lost, plunging the industry into turmoil and the future of London Fashion week into an unprecedented crisis. In a wider context, it is another shot in the new battle for supremacy between London and New York.

In the past two years London, with its eclectic style and the powerhouse of the ...

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