London celebrates return to fashion's top table

By Rachel Sanderson and Cindy Martin

LONDON (Reuters) - London celebrated the opening weekend of its fashion week with greater fanfare and more international influence than ever filling its runways with spectacle and its front rows with stars.

After languishing behind Paris, Milan and New York for several years, a clutch of new designers and London's emergence as a top shopping and financial destination have returned it to fashion's zenith for the spring-summer 2008 shows.

While supermodels Naomi Campbell and Claudia Schiffer took centre stage at a champagne-filled party in Holland Park, Dame Shirley Bassey, U.S. actress Tara Reid and Joan Collins took to the front row of the shows.

"A lot of people have said to me it's the best London fashion week in 10 years. And you can't do better than that," Hilary Riva, chief executive of the British Fashion Council that organises fashion week, told Reuters.

Gareth Pugh, one of the most eagerly awaited designers of the week, upheld London's reputation as the crucible of the cutting-edge opening his show on Sunday with a huge red balloon which popped revealing a model with a cube for a head.

He later sent another down the catwalk in a shawl made of mice in a show filled with gothic-influenced leather suits.

At Julien Macdonald, whose evening gowns are red carpet favourites, the dominant theme was racing stripes and biker shorts under flirty skirts.

With luxury sportswear one of the fastest-growing areas in the high fashion industry, Macdonald said it was a look inspired by Britain's hosting of the 2012 Olympics.