London Fashion Week: expected highlights

While New York's fashion week will wrap up with three of the biggest stars of American fashion design -- Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, and Tommy Hilfiger -- February 18, London's younger and edgier counterpart is already in the starting blocks, kicking off February 19.

While New York's fashion week will wrap up with three of the biggest stars of American fashion design - Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, and Tommy Hilfiger - February 18, London's younger and edgier counterpart is already in the starting blocks, kicking off February 19.

Designers such as Mark Fast, Jenny Peckham, and Christopher Kane will be sure to shake things up a little, but more established heavyweights will also show here, with highlights featuring Burberry Prorsum, Matthew Williamson, and Vivienne Westwood's Red Label.

As usual, these shows are only open to trade (and some of them to online viewers via londonfashionweek.co.uk/digitalschedule.aspx) - but tickets to Naomi Campbell's Fashion for Relief showcase on February 18 (the charity show in benefit of Haiti's earthquake victims, previously staged in New York), can be booked by anyone via ticketweb.co.uk.

And Campbell is not the only charitable lady this season: fellow supermodel Natalia Vodianova is hosting an event, called the Love Ball, at the Roundhouse on February 23, which - with the help from Harper's Bazaar magazine and jewelers De Beers - will raise money through an art auction (works by Jeff Koons and Sir Peter Blake, among others) for her Naked Heart Foundation that supports children in her native Russia.

Pop-up highlights around the fashion week will include Ezra Petronio's Self Service exhibition at the St Martins Lane Hotel (the editor has collaborated with Idea Books to publish the archives of the magazine, with books starting at $78) and designer Lulu Guinness's boutique as part of Carnaby Street's 50th anniversary celebrations.

Finally, as everyone working in fashion knows, fashion weeks are just as much about the parties as about the shows, and this season will serve up quite the schedule thanks to new partnerships: department store Liberty of London fetes its collaboration with Milan's concept store 10 Corso Como on February 23, the same evening as Temperley London's party in honor of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.

On the evenings of February 20-21, the PPQ and Mulberry parties will be attracting the crowds as every season, while John Rocha celebrates his 25 years in business and singer Roisin Murphy hosts a soirée for iconic eyewear brand Linda Farrow.

Apart from the concurrently running BAFTAs, the fashion week will also play host to the ELLE Style Awards on February 22.