Scott's London collection steals the spotlight from rock star boyfriend, while Emma Hill presents her final Mulberry collection
• Live coverage of all the action at London fashion week on the Guardian live blog
When fashion designer L'Wren Scott moved her catwalk show from New York to London earlier this year, she had one significant concern: "I was worried that in London I would be judged for who I know, rather than what I do. In New York, I am known for fashion." Scott, a designer with a two-decade backstory as one of the most powerful red-carpet stylists in Hollywood, is still better known in the UK as Mick Jagger's girlfriend.
But London's high stock of cultural capital persuaded her the time was right for a show here. "People all over the world pay a lot of attention to what happens in London," she said.
"Last year with the Olympics, the Jubilee, every great art show being here, it just felt more than ever like the epicentre – and as a creative person, that's where you want to be."
On Sunday at London fashion week the formidable Scott, who stands 6'3" in her handmade brogues, showed for the second season that her clothes are quite capable of stealing the limelight from the diminutive rock star seated next to Anna Wintour.
Scott delivers the Oscar-level glamour achievable by dresses which are not only painstakingly tailored to create a knockout silhouette, but embellished and crafted into works of art. A 16th century Japanese screen decorated with drawings of kimonos, seen in a museum, gave Scott the starting point for bandage-tight dresses delicately embroidered with cherry blossom, a Tokyo-inspired take on Le Smoking, with a kimono-wrapped jacket fastened with an obi-style belt, and bento box red tailoring with the origami folds at the collarbone which Roland Mouret has long since used to flattering effect.
"What resonates culturally with me about Japanese style is that it is very covered up, but very sensual," said Scott, interviewed before the show while casting models in her Chelsea studio.
Staging a show at London fashion week, traditionally squeezed between New York and Milan, still has "practical challenges", said Scott. "You don't know which models will be in town until they walk through the door for casting, and I find that hard because I'm not naturally a last minute person. I like to be organised."
Scott has an alpha female aura which succeeds in infusing the clothes, drawing like-minded women to them: in the US, Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey are regular L'Wren Scott wearers. Scott will not, however, be drawn on names of potential high-profile British ambassadors. "I love seeing women looking great in my clothes. I don't care who they are. I don't quantify people by celebrity," she said.
While Scott was amplifying her voice in the British fashion chorus, another female designer was saying her farewells as Emma Hill, the designer at the helm of Mulberry for the past six years, presented her final collection.
It was Hill who brought Mulberry, previously an accessories brand, onto the catwalk schedule, a move which transformed the brand's image and profile. However, after the appointment last year of Hermès's Bruno Guillon as Mulberry's CEO, there were rumours that Guillon's ambition to create a fully-fledged luxury brand clashed with the image of down-to-earth, approachable glamour which Hill created.
In June, it was announced that Hill would be stepping down by mutual consent. "Mulberry's essence is its inherent Britishness," said Hill yesterday, summing up her tenure. "Not as a pastiche but as a real and fundamental part of the brand. Mulberry pioneered the desire for "Le Style Anglais" in the 1970s and that celebration of beautiful, practical things is still a big part of the collection."
The quintessentially British tradition of afternoon tea – a ritual which, with its crustless sandwiches and miniature cakes, is decorative as well as practical – set the scene for Hill's final show, with miniature Wedgwood tea cups sent as invitations and tiers of scones and crumpets flanking the entrance.
The children's song If you're happy and you know it blared as Cara Delevingne and Turbo the bulldog vied for supermodel status on the catwalk in Claridges ballroom, and a rousing blast of Land Of Hope And Glory closed the show. Before the show, asked about her feelings about the swansong, Hill insisted that it was simply business as usual.
"Each time my team and I spend a week in each other's pockets, like a big fashion week boarding school, it's very emotional." Nonetheless Hill, whose next move is yet to be revealed, was overcome backstage as she thanked her team, many of whom were in tears. "You lot, you'll always be my Mulbs, and I love you all," she told them.