British fashion designers feel the squeeze

Is London Fashion Week in danger of dropping off the calendar? At the very least it is due to become less significant. The biannual event, which began yesterday, looks set to drop to four days a week from the current six days as of next year. This will only serve to confirm London's wilting status next to New York (eight days, pushing for nine), Milan (eight days) and Paris (nine days).

Fashion insiders are worried London will drop off the radar completely, with models flying straight from New York to Milan in future. Hilary Riva, chief executive of the British Fashion Council which runs London Fashion Week, has said that no-one is "setting out to deliberately damage London". But it looks increasingly as if that is exactly what is going to happen.

The row has erupted because the Council of Fashion Designers of

America - currently with Diane von Furstenberg at the helm - has successfully campaigned for a later September start date for New York Fashion Week from 2009 onwards. US designers want to buy time because so many of their clothing factories are closed in August. This would push all the dates forward, threatening to squeeze out London's turn completely. The best London can hope for is a drop from six days to five.

London Fashion Week is fighting back with a Downing Street party tonight hosted by the Prime Minister's wife, Sarah Brown, to celebrate 25 years of the British Fashion Council, which will be attended by Topshop boss Sir Philip Green, Jaeger owner Harold Tillman and the heads of the fashion weeks of Milan and Paris.

There is an undeniable buzz around certain designers showing