Fashion Party at Number Ten kicks London Fashion Week off in style

To prove their support, last night saw Sarah Brown (wearing Erdem) and Chancellor Alistair Darling’s wife Maggie (in Betty Jackson and Jasper Conran) rubbing shoulders with some of the capital’s best fashion talent from Gareth Pugh to Matthew Williamson, as well as industry heavyweights like BFC chairman, Harold Tillman and ELLE Editor-in-chief, Lorraine Candy when they hosted a fashion party down at Number 10. (Sarah Brown had also made an appearance and delivered a heartfelt speech at Caryn Franklin's exhibition launch 'All Walks Behind the Catwalk' earlier in the evening.)

This month has also seen the BFC move LFW to a brand new central and quite beautiful setting down at Somerset House (LFW has long deserved a better venue since it moved from the Natural History Museum and scattered itself all over the city), and London Mayor, Boris Johnson gracing the cover of British fashion magazine ELLE (of course), as well as giving his time to open London Fashion Week by sitting front row at Caroline Charles.

No doubt all of this quite public backing has helped the BFC lure back some of the country’s biggest fashion names (Antonio Berardi, Matthew Williamson and Burberry have all returned this season) and, if anniversary celebrations aside, this level of support can continue into 2010 and beyond, LFW will well and truly back on the global fas