New star lights up London

Move over, McQueen - at last there's a new star on the horizon. Last night's debut collection by Giles Deacon proved that London Fashion Week is still the place where new talent is found, despite what the doommerchants say.

It may have been his first collection, but Deacon, 34, is far from wet behind the ears. He graduated from Central Saint Martins 10 years ago, and has worked on brands as diverse as Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Debenhams. His time in Milan and his experience of the industry was hugely apparent last night, not only in the artistry of his clothes but in the shrewdness of his marketing.

The collection was beautifully executed. Highlights included a midnightblue cape decorated with shards of crystal quartz on the shoulder, a tawny tweed suit cut as curvy as an hourglass and a boat-necked cocktail dress in a hologram fabric.

But sparkling as the clothes were, what made them sparkle even brighter was the models. With the help of superstylist Katie Grand - a close friend since college days - Deacon managed to pull off the impossible: getting the world's top models to participate in London Fashion Week.

There was Karen Elson, the current face of Louis Vuitton, in a purple satin pussy-bow blouse; Elise Crombez, face of Prada, in a strapless dress with a leaf motif and Nadja Auermann, who came out of semi-retirement to model a voluminous chiffon gown. To top it all, Eva "Hello Boys" Herzigova turned out, only this time it wasn't the former Wonderbra girl's boobs that were on display but her bottom, resplendent in silk stockings and suspenders.

Deacon's aren't the sort of clothes that will find favour with London's twiglet It Girls - they are a bit too challenging. But in a city which relies too much on peddling barely-there dresses or clothes so avant-garde you need an instruction manual to wear them, it was good to see a British designer championing the middle way. The cutting was precise, the prints imaginative and the accessories just the right side of dramatic. Long may he show in London.