Unconditional fuk@lfw a/w 07

Heaven is a place where magical things can happen. As one of London's most-loved clubs, it was the perfect setting for Philip Stephens' label. Unconditional is 100% homegrown talent - something which, in the international melting pot that is London Fashion Week, is becoming less common.

After a week of bright lights and predominantly white catwalks, what must have been hundreds of us filed down into the bowels of the club, past Heaven's Drug Amnesty Box (I didn't see anyone use it, but was tempted to pop in a few Ibruprofen I had in my bag) to see a catwalk of reflective silver. The show was a fast-paced series of menswear and womenswear modelled by a mixture of gorgeous boys and girls and genuine punks and London characters. Mr Stephens has been mining the seam of British club culture and gives a stylish reinterpretation of acid house - only without the childish ugliness of the original - cross-bred with punk tailoring

For men, Unconditional offers fantastic plastic trench coats, leather bomber jackets with detachable hoods, stunning knitwear including scouped neck V-neck jumpers which look like cardis, super holey knits, lush supersized cardigans which promise such comfort I wanted to move in and live in them. To the sound of The Pet Shop Boys' Never Being Boring out came silver trousers and a smiley face T-shirt much more tasteful and muted than the original Acid House motif. For women, Unconditonal offers velour velvet parkas dripping with desirability, orange and lime hooded velour dresses, mohair jumper dresses, loungey frocks with zip details and cute bombers. We Londoners know that this city rocks and so does this collection.

Words: Marian Buckley
Photos: David Jones