"There is so much sponsorship and financial support in London right now," said Nicoll, a winner of the latest Fashion Forward sponsorship. "It is a very nurturing city for young talent."

And while London is most famous for its youth culture, the city is also filled with older, more established designers who are fixtures on the London Fashion Week schedule. The likes of Betty Jackson, Jasper Conran and Allegra Hicks may not always grab headlines or generate miles of magazine shoots, but they have all built sustainable businesses and are generating cash season after season.

"I was once Gareth Pugh," said Conran, referring to the edgy media darling who until the spring 2008 season had no wholesale accounts. (Today, Pugh is stocked at Browns Focus, Colette, Maxfield and Barneys.) "But I woke up and built a business. It's not very romantic, but I had to be commercial. That's how you pay your staff," said Conran, who has been in the business more than 20 years. All the products bearing his name — including his men's, women's and bridal lines, home collections, fragrance and jewelry — generate $900 million each year at retail.

Jackson, who's been in business since 1981 and whose annual revenue is about $8 million, said "business" isn't a bad word.

"You want to put your stamp on the world, but you still need to produce a skirt that people will buy," she said. "People equate commercialism with dull and boring. But at the New York shows, if people like a collection, they'll spend money on it."

Pia Hahn Marocco, ceo at Allegra Hicks, also knows about balancing art and commerce. "We have fashion journalists who make tons of personal orders but who never write about us. Then again, we're not trendsetting. Our dresses are meant to be pieces you can wear year-on-year," she said. Hicks' business, like Jackson's, is small — under $10 million — but has been growing by 40 percent annually. In addition, the company has stand-alone stores in London and New York and is currently scouting space in L.A. "In London, is commercial a bad word? An insult? I think it's a good thing."