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 this week - Julien Macdonald, Paul Smith and the Jaeger London collection (showing today), Aquascutum and Christopher Kane tomorrow and Richard Nicoll on Wednesday. But nothing can disguise the essential fact that influential US Vogue editor Anna Wintour will not be attending London Fashion Week at all.

This undermining of London's position comes at a crucial time for couture globally. Fashion sales are coming under pressure from sites like asos.com and net-a-porter.com. The internet is the only sector boasting profits currently (£3bn sales this year in the UK, forecast to double in the next five years).

And there is another web-based problem: all the designers now release footage and photographs on the internet within seconds of their shows. This democratic move is great for fashion fans - you can browse collections close-up at your leisure - but is devaluing the exclusivity of the catwalk shows.

There are other bad omens for London Fashion Week. Where did Victoria Beckham choose to launch her 10-piece signature line? New York, of course - and not even as a catwalk show but at an invite-only showroom preview.

If the US-led plans go ahead as of next year, we'll see the designers currently slated to show on the last two days of London Fashion Week squeezed out. This week, that would mean the likes of Vivienne Westwood Red Label, Issa and Margaret Howell.

London's fashion crowd had better enjoy their shows while they still can. Unless Sarah Brown can work some magic, this Fashion Week may be London's longest and most significant for some time. ·