Good times, bad times UK fashion bounces back after bad year

The question at London fashion week is: do you want the good news or the bad news first? The outlook for British fashion depends where you look.

- Jess Cartner-Morley

At SS Daley's show in a lightflooded Royal Academy gallery, the picture looked rosy. Harry Styles, who became Steven Stokey-Daley's financial backer when he took a minority stake in the brand earlier this year, formed a front row power couple next to Anna Wintour, who teamed her signature shades with a stars-and-stripes Harris-Walz campaign scarf.

The show was a hit, the audience charmed by dalmatian-printed silk separates and romantically oversized Brideshead Oxford bags.

The actor Emma Corrin, watching from the front row, was already wearing one of the dresses.

The appointment of Sarah Burton to the distinguished Paris house of Givenchy, proof that British talent still leads the fashion world, is also cause for celebration - as is the return of Christopher Kane, whose label went into administration last year, back on the scene with a one-off collection for the British brand Self-Portrait.