Seven months after winning the coveted Fashion Fringe award, the Scandinavian design duo, Aminaka Wilmont, are still humble about their success. But they are also recovering from a triumph at London Fashion Week. “Too much coffee, too much Red Bull, too many cigarettes,” says Maki Aminaka of their rapturously received show.

Partners in life as well as in business, Aminaka, 31 (who grew up in Japan and Sweden), and Marcus Wilmont, 32, from Denmark, have had only a short time to adapt. They were no doubt helped by a move from their in-house studio in London to a space given to all Fashion Fringe winners, which left them to argue over the colour theme of the collection: red or blue. Aminaka (red) won. “The designs we really fight about usually end up being the most successful, and the ones we care for most,” says Wilmont.

The couple met when Wilmont, a Central St Martins graduate, went to work in Robert Cary-Williams’s studio for his MA at the Royal College of Art. Aminaka was then the studio manager. It took them “about a month” to get together, he says.

Their aesthetic has remained unchanged since their debut collection in 2006, although winning the award has been a serious leap forward. “The biggest change has been getting to work at 6am but being unable to design until 4pm, because the phone rings nonstop,” Wilmont says. “We work until midnight.”

Buyers from Japan, Russia, the Middle East, China and Hong Kong have shown interest. “Net-a-porter is the biggest line we have; Natalie Massenet has done amazing things for our profile,” Wilmont says. “We’d hoped to get to this stage eventually,” says Aminaka, “but thanks to the award, it has happened a lot more quickly.”

Both designers like to get away from the hysteria of the industry, and go to the pub rather than fashion parties. “We don’t go out very often – we are so nerdy,” Wilmont says.

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