kylie, posh, madonna dressed by hackney

Hackney is a pressure cooker for new fashion ideas, a place where designers from the very top end of the industry rub shoulders with aspiring newcomers to the trade. The results frequently catch the eyes – and attract the cheque books - of global celebrities like Kylie Minogue, Victoria Beckham and Madonna. So it’s not an industry the borough can afford to lose.

Dalston Lane designer Christopher Kane – whose clients include Kylie Minogue, Victoria Beckham and Beth Ditto - has been grabbing fashion headlines worldwide for the last three years. One of the best known names on the British catwalk, Hackney is an important source for Kane’s work. The ideas behind some of his latest snakeskin shirts and dresses come from a camouflage T-shirt he bought in Dalston Lane as a teenager ten years ago. Kane's designs are now best sellers in the upmarket stores of Paris, Milan, Tokyo and London Angeles. This year he is launching a high street range of cashmere knitwear and jewellery for Swarovski.

Kane honed his design skills at St Martin’s School of Art, alongside Marios Schwab, another big name in the industry who is based just around the corner in Arcola Street. Schwab was recently named Best New Designer in the British Fashion Awards. This year he is using scientific body imaging – such as heat scans – to develop unusual colour schemes for his dresses. He has Kylie Minogue and Kate Moss among his regular customers.

Kylie Minogue recently commissioned Mare Street fashion designer Emma Roach to make a costume which the Australian superstar has been wearing as she promotes X, her latest album. Roach created a very striking and unique outfit which looks like body armour. “There has been strong interest from a number of other chart bands since that order,” she says. The Emma Roach studio has just been awarded a grant from the Hackney Enterprise Network to purchase more computing equipment to help the young design practice.

Superstars also queue up to buy underwear from Buttress and Snatch of Broadway Market, the hottest news in the fast growing luxury underwear trade. The company is benefiting from a backlash against cheap and disposable knickers by upmarket shoppers who are fuelling a "lingerie renaissance." Designer Rachel Kenyon uses vintage trims and hand-clipped lace from the last surviving real lace company in Nottingham, and all her garments are made in the UK from local materials. Her buyers include Christina Aguilera and Madonna. Buttress and Snatch sells well in Barneys department store in New York, which Rachel says is because "I don't scrimp on the frills and fanciness."

A large number of new designers are hoping to follow in the footsteps of Kane, Schwab, Roach and Kenyon. Of these Kelly Shaw and Goodone are strong contenders.

Retro-womanswear designer Kelly Shaw recently took second place and a cash prize of £2000 in the River Island awards for garments which evoke memories of the 1950s. Victoria Beckham is rumoured to have purchased three of her dresses.

Nin Castle and Phoebe Emerson of Goodone, an ethical fashion business based in Tudor Road, create their garments from hand selected recycled fabric. They call this "mass producing the one-off". Goodone supplies retail outlets in London, Manchester, Brighton and Glasgow along with customers in Europe and Japan The company recently won a Trevor Campbell award for enterprise. A recent grant of £16,000 from the London Development Agency means that Goodone has time to provide advice and guidance to students and other companies on how the fashion industry can become sustainable. "We enjoy instigating positive change in the industry," they say.

All these companies expect to benefit from the extension of the tube line to Dalston over the next two years. But many are also worried about rent rises for studios and the demolition of workshops to make way for new apartment blocks.

“We need to make sure that the affordable studio and workshop spaces which attracted these growing companies to Hackney when they first started out remain a feature of the business landscape,” says kevin Davey of the Hackney Enterprise Network. “Innovative designers create new markets for businesses of all kinds in the capital, and these trailblazing small companies are precious assets in Hackney’s economy.”

recycled fabrics key to sustainable fashion

The innovative design work of goodone, an ethical fashion business based in Tudor Road, Hackney which uses only recycled fabrics, features in a recent online report by Clare Davidson for the BBC.

Goodone - which supplies retail outlets in London, Manchester, Brighton and Glasgow along with customers in Europe and Japan - is run by Nin Castle and Phoebe Emerson.

The company "mass produces the one-off" by creating individual garments from a unique combination of hand selected recycled fabrics.

The company won a £15,000 Trevor Campbell award for enterprise in 2007. A more recent grant of £16,000 from the London Development Agency has enabled goodone to provide advice and guidance to students and other companies on how the fashion industry can become sustainable.

"We enjoy instigating positive change in the industry," they say.

hackney's fashion vanguard: kane and schwab

Dalston Lane designer Christopher Kane – whose clients include Kylie Minogue, Victoria Beckham, Naomi Campbell, Beth Ditto and Swarovski - has been grabbing the headlines as London Fashion Week looms, along with risk-taker Marios Schwab - who is also based in Hackney. Both designers honed their skills at St Martin's School of Art.

In her survey of East London based designers for the Observer, Sarah Mower calls Kane "the 25-year-old Glaswegian poster boy for London's latest fashion surge."

Christopher Kane's designer clothing is available from upmarket outlets worldwide, including Browns, Dover Street Market, Barneys, Corso Como, Villa Moda, Maria Luisa in Paris and Quatar, Joyce in Hong Kong, Corso Como in Milan, Tokyo and Seoul, Ikram in Chicago, Maxfields in LA, Comme des Garcons in Tokyo, Sotris in Athens, Elle in Perth, and Podium in Russia.

luxury underwear by buttress and snatch

The Hackney company Buttress and Snatch recently featured prominently in a Guardian survey of the growing luxury underwear trade. Journalist Leonie Cooper writes of a "backlash against disposable fashion" and a "lingerie renaissance" which includes "a flourishing of upmarket, bijoux underwear brands."

"Rachel Kenyon fell in love with underwear thanks to her glamorous French grandmother's pink boudoir. A fashion graduate of Bristol UWE, she now runs the frilly and silly underwear label Buttress and Snatch, which has fast become a burlesque favourite. When it was founded in 1999, however, it was nothing more than a lighthearted performance-art project. "We were all about dressing up fancy and showing off," says Kenyon. "It wasn't called burlesque or anything then. It was quite a funny joke to dress up like olden-days ladies when we'd all spent years being scruffy punk rockers." Now Kenyon's flamboyant bloomers are worn by the likes of Christina Aguilera and Madonna, and over the past year Buttress and Snatch has racked up top underwear sales in Barneys department store in New York, which she attributes to the fact that "I don't scrimp on the frills and fanciness".

Kenyon admits she always has a waiting list for her showy designs: "I've never been able to keep up with making enough pants for everyone who wants them!" Kenyon's underwear is less than cheap because of her time-intensive methods and use of deluxe but ethical fabrics. "The clothing industry these days is all about mass production, globalisation, cost cutting and maximising profits rather than craftsmanship, tradition and beautiful things," she laments. She uses vintage trims and hand-clipped lace from the last real lace company in Nottingham, and all production takes place in the UK with local materials, to support the British fabric industry."

hackney designer kits out kylie

Mare Street based fashion designer Emma Roach has been meeting regularly with singer Kylie Minogue, who has commissioned her to design and deliver a costume which the Australian superstar will wear during An Audience with Kylie Minogue, a programme which will be broadcast in late November, coinciding with the release of X, her tenth studio album. The unique garments have the appearance of body armour. Emma Roach has just been awarded a grant from the Hackney Enterprise Network to purchase computing equipment for use in her fast growing design practice.

designer kelly shaw wins river island fashion award

Hackney fashion designer Kelly Shaw has won second place and £2000 in this year's River Island awards for her 1950s style womenswear. Victoria Beckham is rumoured to have purchased three of her dresses. "I've been trying to push the boundaries of fashion, rather than just staying inside them," Kelly told the Hackney Gazette, adding that the work of photographer Martin Parr is an inspiration for her designs.