It’s all about making fashion accessible to everyday shoppers. A catwalk show in a London underground train kicked off an innovative high street fashion week. For the first time a host of mainstream stores are getting together to put this spot light on design ahead of the exclusive shows of London fashion Week. Retailers estimates the week will bring in an extra 200 million dollars and nearly half a million more shoppers.

Here in London this is one of the busiest shopping streets in the world and all the stores here are taking all kinds of measures to bring the designer trends to the public.

Stylist Liz Thody says it’s possible to buy top-end styles for affordable prices. A lot of the British designers really sort of jumped on the 80s, animal print but in green, tweed’s just great fabric ‘cause it always looks really smart and actually expensive when in fact, you know probably be quiet cheap on the high street.

Liz, I’ve got my animal prints, I’ve got my tweed, I’ve got my 80s’ style I’m gonna go to try these on now.

A complete outfit for just over 200 dollars. In the current economic climate that’s an added bonus. And top designers are being forced to take note.

I think it gives everybody a little wake-up call. We all have to keep looking in at how we have done rather than blaming the recession. Let ’s give people not only what they want but a wonderful experience as well.

Ben De Lisi was ahead of the curve and introduced a more affordable line to this London department store 15 years ago. Someone who is, aspires to get into my brand but can’t necessarily afford 3000-pound price point. Given the economic situation, I think we’ll be very cautious and careful about how we do it, looking to a different approach to our spending and our shopping. Others have introduced special one-off lines to high street stores. The likes of Matthew Williamson and Jimmy Choo for instance.

For the average women in the street, high street retailers can help translate those high street fashions, very high-end fashions into their daily lives.

Okay I’m ready.

Time to see if this average woman can really pull off the latest trends. High fashion perhaps, am I a fashionista? Perhaps not. Maybe I should just stick to my jeans and T-shirt. Leone Lakhani, CNN London.

Vocabulary:

1. high street: the main street of a town where most of the shops and businesses are

2. wake-up call: an experience or event that shocks you and makes you realize that you must do something to change a situation

3. ahead of the curve: 走在潮流尖端

4. price point: The retail price of a product, usually when viewed as one of a series of possible competitive prices

5. fashionista: someone who is very interested in fashion and who likes the very newest styles