Feb 6, 2003/ FW/ --- With about 50 catwalk shows and several presentations planned during a 5 day period, London Fashion Week continue to be the test tube of British fashion.

With the current sponsorship deal with P&GBeauty for 10 seasons, LFW is assured to show until 2006.

In 1994, there were only 15 shows/presentation in London, which grew to nearly 60 shows in 2002.

The London Designer's Exhibition has also grown from 50 in 1994 to 130 in 2002.

Though the current thinking with the fashionista set is that London is dying, the statistics show differently.

Yes, some of its stars like Luella, Matthew Williamson and Arkadius have moved to New York.

Some have even moved to Paris like Maria Grachvogel.

But there are still a lot of stars left like Julien Macdonald, Fake London, John Rocha and Ben De Lisi.

And new designers throw in their hat in the ring every season as the new rising star.

With the 'New Generation' shows sponsored by Top Shop, upcoming designers have a venue to exhibit their talents.

For Fall 2003, Emma Cook, House of Jazz, Jens Laugesen, Kim Jones, Rafael Lopes and Warren Noronha were selected as the the New Generation Designers.

They have been given financial support to show their Fall 2003 collections at the catwalk.

London Fashion Week will be held at the Duke of York Headquarters in Chelsea from Feb 16-19, 2003.