Should anyone be planning another fashion movie, Marc Jacobs’s story could help. The designer who long toiled away impecuniously in New York last night showed his second line, Marc by Marc Jacobs in London, the city where some designers toil away impecuniously indefinitely.

As befits a designer whose label is so hot (and who is also creative director of Louis Vuitton) the venue for his show, which closed London Fashion Week, was the ballroom of Claridge’s.

Sofia Coppola was there, and what, compared with New York, London lacked in star wattage, it made up for in attitude — Vivienne Westwood wearing a headband with the word Branded splashed across it; Naomi Campbell being Naomi Campbell.

Jacobs is here to promote the opening of his London store, but also, perhaps to reinforce the cool factor. This may be a diffusion line, but the prices are hardly a steal, especially in a country that is used to fast, cheap fashion. Still, there’s no doubt that Jacobs’s uptown urchin is exactly the way many girls in this country like to dress. The clothes were terrific. Jacobs took tweeds, tartans, velvets and argyle knits and offered wide, three-quarter length trousers with braces, or shrunken cardigan fronts (with tie backs) or shrunken Empire-line dresses with silk or lace trims or mini-tiered, Victorian capes or swingy pea coats. Evenings were dominated by silk strapless bouffant mini-dresses. There were some big fur jackets — probably not a good idea in London, but presumably the point was that Marc is an aspirational label. As he piled on the merchandise — patent, boxy bag, chunky heeled brogues — one realised how evolved this label is.

Student fashion shows used to produce wildly improbable outfits. The Central St Martins College of Art and Design MA graduate fashion show yesterday was buoyed by an impressive list of sponsors and some of the world’s most influential press — and it showed. There was a tendency towards outsized, mannish clothing; a trend also having an impact on international catwalks. Many of the clothes looked so slick they could have walked straight into the windows of Harrods or Barneys.

As for Asprey, revived from administration, the move to appoint a new creative director was a good idea. But Hakan Rosenius’s collection didn’t quite live up to the buzz. The cracked patent leather swing coat was an elegant starting-point, but it never got more daring than that. Shift dresses with rosebud appliqué or brocade trims on coats were pretty but do not a groundbreaking collection make.

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