London Fashion Week gets underway

London Fashion Week starts with catwalk show and press conference hosted by Sir Philip Green and Harold Tillman CBE.

(LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM) (FEBRUARY 17, 2012) (REUTERS) -

London Fashion Week kicked off on Friday (February 17) with a catwalk show from British designers Antoni & Alison.

Models on stage at Somerset House in the capital showcased a range filled with bright colours and bold patterns and prints.

Fashion tycoon Sir Philip Green was at the launch and gave his take on what makes fashion in the UK stand out: ''I think that there have been a lot of creative people here, a lot of new ideas have come out of London, it's more about the people you know the colleges that have been here through history St Martin's you know London College of Fashion, have been great platforms to develop people.''

The Topshop boss spoke at a press conference at the annual fashion event's opener about the opportunities his company has provided for young designers. He also announced that his flagship store has renewed it's sponsorship of NewGen, a scheme set up by the British Fashion Council (BFC) to showcase and promote new designers. A partnership he thinks is vital for the up and coming designers and the industry: ''Really important, important for them and important for us, important for the industry that we create and develop and help to continue to develop new talent, without new designs and new talent there's no gain.''

Over the past 10 years, 120 designers have been supported by the NEWGEN scheme and 49 shows out of the 95 on the LFW schedule have been supported by NEWGEN.

Harold Tillman CBE, Chairman of the British Fashion Council was also at the event and despite the recession he says the fashion industry is booming: ''I think what we are really saying is that Great Britain, London the rest of the country are creating such good new innovative designers that we have an opportunity to be up there on the world stage with all the mega brands that are already there and I think that's actually is under pinning what is really quite an interesting industry that is much bigger than everybody has always perceived it to be, we are talking about fashion, almost 21 billion pounds a year as a contribution to our economy it's twice the size of the chemical industry, the motor industry and I think that fact is it hasn't ever really been taken as serious as we are now telling everyone it really is a great industry.''

London Fashion Week runs until February 22.