This week, when Whistles arrives in New York, it will be the cult London brand’s first physical presence in the U.S. Whistles is the non-designer label that hangs out with designer fashion. In February, it broke through onto London Fashion Week’s fiercely guarded official schedule despite technically being a mid-market, high-street store. In London, it would be hard to find a fashion editor who doesn’t have Whistles in her wardrobe.

In hindsight, Topshop’s new creative design consultant Geoffrey J. Finch was always destined for the job. The Australian designer – long since adopted by the U.K. – is better known as creative director of the cult London fashion label Antipodium, where his collections are packed with sly pop culture references (Miss Piggy, Cher Horowitz, Dee-Lite) and delivered in neons, metallics, and pastels (“I love a sickly color,” he tells me).

In a gallery in Bloomsbury, London, 29-year-old leather craftsman Mark Tallowin has just finished washing Champagne glasses and is anxiously handing them out to his guests. Half the group are old friends, while the other half are his new contacts in the fashion industry. 

Mary Katrantzou has the kind of buzzing, productive energy that you can only sustain if you never stop moving. On the day I meet her, she’s just returned to London after a trunk show tour of the U.S., where she met several of her most ardent fans.

Two weeks ago, the brand new Condé Nast College of Fashion & Design opened its doors in London, offering two courses: the ten-week Vogue Fashion Certificate and the yearlong Vogue Fashion Foundation Diploma. The new college’s main selling point (which they are promoting aggressively via social media) is that students get an unparalleled insight into the fashion industry, with the staff of Condé Nast’s numerous U.K. publications being lined up as speakers and mentors. The courses are also making use of Condé Nast’s contacts outside the company — at this weekend’s British Vogue Festival, Sir Paul Smith mentioned he would soon be speaking at “that posh college.”

On a very bright, very cold morning in London, Hilary Alexander is sitting at a cluttered table in her kitchen, smoking cigarettes, drinking coffee, and making a "mood book." She’s not confident that it’s going well — collage isn’t her strong point. “Normally I do words,” she says, frowning at her work.

In 1999, Sarah-Jane Clarke and Heidi Middleton were just two Australian travelers selling customized jeans at London’s Portobello Market. This was the birth of Sass & Bide, a label that quickly became known for supremely low-slung jeans with two-inch zippers, and early appearances in Carrie Bradshaw's wardrobe.