Scot Kane's gladiators slay fashion week

FOR 20 minutes yesterday afternoon, London belonged to a 24-year-old Glaswegian.

Christopher Kane, only one year out of fashion college, provided the day's stand-out runway show on the packed London Fashion Week calendar. His dark, gothic fashion fantasy, spun in a modern, sexy way, drew an enthusiastic ovation peppered with cries of "Bravo!" He held the fashion pack in his thrall.

Kane's sell-out show had fashion fans fighting with bouncers at the doors to try to gain access, while the post-show pictures for Vogue were shot by the legendary photographer Mario Testino.

The designer cited the epic movie Gone With the Wind as a key influence, but his Scarlett O'Hara didn't wear billowing antebellum gowns. Instead, she had been catapulted into the 21st century in thigh-high crinoline skirts and wonder-woman leather corsetry.

Like Margaret Mitchell's original southern belle, Kane's Scarlett was a predator, using glamour as her weapon of mass-seduction - and not, quite frankly my dears, the sort of woman to whom a man would dare say he didn't give a damn.

Rich velvets in crimson, forest and a colour Kane termed marmalade, were partnered with oxblood leather. Other velvets shimmered like a starry night-sky thanks to lavish crystal embellishment. Practically everything was articulated with Swarovski crystals, each as big as a knuckle, together with chunky metal rings and bands of leather tooled to resemble ammunition belts. Leather, moulded into fans and curlicues, formed bustiers that seemed positively gladiatorial. Kane's muse was most certainly a warrior.

"I have turned to a more complex, darker shade of female this time," he explained before the show. "She's a predator!"

Kane loves strong women. And strong women (like his feisty sister, Tammy, who runs the commercial side of Kane's burgeoning business) certainly love the powerful and provocative couture-like clothes that he is now turning out. But can he hope to match the global reputations built by John Galliano and Alexander McQueen, given that so very few young designers live up to the hype engendered by commentators overly eager to identify the next big thing?

"Christopher is undoubtedly extremely talented. I think he'll do very well because he has the right temperament - a strong sense of self without too much ego," said Jane Rapley, head of Central Saint Martins, the London fashion college which has unleashed a succession of fashion megastars including McQueen, Stella McCartney, Matthew Williamson, and, most recently, Kane.

Fashion-life is full of undelivered promises and other disappointments, with only a tiny number of new names actually proving they're more than one-season wonders. Having burst on to the London fashion scene last year in such a blaze of glory with his graduation show, Kane needed to demonstrate that he had much more to offer.

Yesterday's stellar show surely showed he has exactly what it takes to secure fashion stardom.

• SINCE graduating from art college, Christopher Kane has become a rising global star in the fashion world.

Brought up in Glasgow he is a graduate of the prestigious Central St Martins in London, where he gained an MA with distinction in Womenswear in 2005.

Since then he has received a string of awards for his work: last year he took the much-coveted Harrods Design Award and received the 2006 Scottish Young Designer / New Talent award, which was judged by a panel including Alexandra Shulman of British Vogue and Hilary Alexander of the Daily Telegraph.

He was also named Scottish Fashion Designer of the Year at the 2006 Scottish Style Awards.

In the world of fashion his work has attracted the attention of some of the industry's most influential figures.

Both Anna Wintour of American Vogue and Donatella Versace - whose dresses Kane has cited as a major influence on his own designs - are fans of his work, while the fashion crystal company Swarovski has given him its backing.

He staged his debut S/S 07 catwalk show in London in September 2006.

Since then he has also been brought in to design a collection for the high street fashion chain Top Shop.