Coda to my Cavalli rant

I could rant for quite some time about big name diffusion collections, designed by their studios, produced in horrible fabrics, and sold in High Street chains, but I;ve written about it at length elsewhere, so here I will content myself by pointing out that if I want diffusion designer on the High Street, then I look for the new and interesting designers who I know will have designed tiny capsule ranges themselves, which support their main line and raise consumer awareness of their nascent brand not their over-priced handbags and umpteen licences for fragrance, cosmetics, sunglasses and the like.

Topshop Boutique is good at this: Preen, Jonathan Saunders and Emma Cook have done stand out collections of maybe ten or twenty pieces for them, and I’m particularly looking forward to Next Big Thing Osman Yousefzada’s SS08’s collection of twelve little black dresses for Mango.