London Fashion: It's in the Stars

At London Fashion Week, where few designers are household names, nothing guarantees attention like a celebrity in the front row. (It worked for a before-they-were-famous Alexander McQueen and Stella McCartney, both London Fashion Week alums.) If A-listers in attendance is any guide, here's what the stars say you’ll be wearing in autumn/winter 2009.

Twenty8Twelve

Like many actresses, Sienna Miller was dress-obsessed on Oscar Sunday. But instead of gowns she was looking critically at the sparkly mini-dresses in Twenty8Twelve, the brand she owns with her older sister Savannah. The collection also featured tuxedo jackets, cashmere knits, and superslim trousers — a mix of her boho and her sister’s more streamlined style. “Put them together and it says London cool,” Sienna said before the show.

In the audience: Courtney Love, Kanye West and Twiggy. (P.S.: Just when I thought it wasn’t possible for Sienna to be any farther from the Oscars than scrambling around backstage at a fashion show, Sienna had a post-mortem on the show with her sister and her publicist at Strada, an Italian chain restaurant.)

Vivienne Westwood

Showing a collection inspired by naughty schoolgirls and their teachers, England’s high priestess of punk managed to shock — even at age 68. And we’re not talking about the 6-inch heels she wore to take her bow on the catwalk. No, Westwood managed the coup of casting Jo Wood — estranged wife of Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, who’s taken up with a 20-year-old — as the headmistress. ("You go girl," yelled the crowd, when Wood took her turn.)

Watching the show, which featured lots of school uniform-y stripes: Kanye West, Girls Aloud singer Nicola Roberts and supermodel Lily Cole (who’s been spending plenty of time at school already — she’s currently studying at Cambridge University).

Danielle Scutt

Young designer Danielle Scutt described her tiny 14-piece collection as “focused” — let’s hope guest Kanye West was similarly focused or he might have missed the whole thing. (What’s the 10-time Grammy winner doing at so many fashion shows? Homework. He’s been collaborating with Louis Vuitton.) Scutt’s 1980s shapes with a rock ‘n’ roll vibe featured lots of black and white and metallics, but with dramatic flame-red touches, such as on the lapels of a suit. She also showed a wildly patterned skintight bodysuit you’d need the confidence of a rock star to wear.

William Tempest

At age 22, William Tempest has already dressed Harry Potter star Emma Watson and Girls Aloud singer Nadine Coyle. Watson made her only London Fashion Week appearance at Tempest’s show, sitting front row as he showed a collection inspired by Elizabethan England. It included pleated peplums, cinched waist silk dresses, and dramatic jackets with acid and photographic portraits of Henry VIII and his daughter Queen Elizabeth I.

House of Holland

Model of the moment Agyness Deyn flew in especially from New York to make her only London Fashion Week catwalk appearance at House of Holland. Not surprising, since its designer Henry Holland just happens to be her best friend, and she’s appeared in every show of his since he started in 2007. This year’s show, held at London restaurant Quaglino’s, opened with Deyn in a green-and-white striped, studded dress later shown on other colors on other models. (Holland said he was inspired by paint cards, and the show’s notes bore the simple message: "Color me happy.")

Also at the show — and the party that continued for hours afterward: Kanye West (yes, him again), who gave an impromptu performance, rapping to Estelle’s "American Boy."

Photo courtesy of Nathalie Lagneau/Catwalking/Getty Images.