The annual contest has already secured more than £1 million in sponsorship and will be at the heart of a new fringe event, which will run alongside September's London Fashion Week. The winner will receive £100,000 to set up their business as a designer, not to mention acres of publicity. Plans for the fringe and its accompanying contest have been initiated over the last two years by McDowell, who hopes to bring back the excitement that the likes of Galliano and McQueen once brought to the capital.

A panel of judges chaired by Katie Grand, the editor of Pop magazine, will have the difficult task of selecting four finalists. The final four will then be given £10,000 to spend on materials for their very own collection, to be shown in a catwalk show in September where a winner will be chosen. Grand told the Sunday Times that: "We don’t want to end up as a TV fashion academy. But we do want to find somebody quite wild rather than someone who can make a good pair of trousers."

McDowell feels that the edge has gone out of the British fashion scene and those who read his Sunday Times fashion week reports will already know that his opinions of recent London designer shows have not been very high. Young designers are often accused of being too commercial - too soon with nothing new to offer. The figures however, do not reflect his views with considerable growth over the past ten years: the designer market has dramatically increased from £70m to £700m a year.

John Wilson, chief executive of the British Fashion Council told the Sunday Times that: "There is no lack of talent. We have twice as many applicants to take part in the fashion weeks as we can accommodate. The money for this competition should be redirected into businesses which have already started."

The debate of creativity versus commerciality strikes again. There’s no doubt that designers such as Chalayan and McQueen inspire and enthral but we all know it’s their unexciting, more mainstream pieces that actually make it out of the stores. It’s all very well grabbing the attention of the fashion press observing yet another catwalk show but when it comes down to it surely selling clothes is where its at?

Read the views of Jenny Holloway from the London Fashion Forum.

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