IF PARIS is known for haute couture, Milan for clothes of style and elegance, New York for luxury and polish, then London is the place for future fashion.

New young designers are given the greatest opportunity to develop there - and to dazzle the fashion world with their visionary ideas at the twice-yearly London Fashion Week.

A scheme to give them real help and encouragement - the first of its kind and known as NewGen (new generation) - was started by the British Fashion Council in 1993. It is acknowledged around the world as the leading scheme for the recognition of fresh talent.

For the last nine years one of the United Kingdom's most successful high street chains, TopShop, has been the main sponsor.

Carefully selected young designers, deemed by panels of experts to be among the most promising in the country, are given a range of advantages for three seasons. They include 5,000 to 10,000 pounds towards the cost of catwalk shows, a sponsored space in the London Fashion Week exhibition hall, and business advice and mentoring.

The scheme really does help the most ambitious and talented newcomers, it seems, because top designers such as Alexander McQueen, Julien Macdonald and Matthew Williamson, now globally famous and successful, were once holders of NewGen status.

This year, the British Fashion Council (BFC) is offering even more help and support to fresh talent - it has appointed its first ambassador for emerging talent.She is Sarah Mower, a respected author and fashion journalist who writes for Vogue (US and UK)and other magazines as well as for one of the UK's most respected national newspapers, the Daily Telegraph.

Mower was given the role in recognition of her standing and influence in the fashion world, and because of the active support she has given to the BFC.

"Sarah's vision and experience will help us develop our support for NewGen and emerging designer businesses, creating new opportunities to promote these extraordinary talents internationally," said the BFC's joint chief executive Caroline Rush.

Sarah Mower added: "In Britain we have a phenomenon on our hands at the moment: a uniquely vibrant, varied and collaborative flowering of talent that is some of the most exciting on the world stage. I am delighted to put myself at their service to help project that incredible energy and originality at home and internationally."

One of her first tasks was to head the team of experts choosing the 17 young designers who would be showcasing their collections at London Fashion Week in September and on into 2010.

A record 150 hopefuls had applied. The lucky ones include young designers from a number of other countries who are now based in the UK.

Netherlander Michael van der Ham, a graduate of Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London, is one of the chosen few. He worked with Sophia Kokosalaki and Alexander McQueen before deciding to start his own label.

Van der Ham says his signature style is to "mismatch" different references in each item of clothing. He describes his most recent collection as "a juxtaposition of elements from different decades in fashion".

He is joined by Georgia-born David Koma, who studied both his BA and MA at Central Saint Martins, and says of London: "it is a city that always inspires me."

Two new UK shoe designers with ambitions to challenge top international names, and a fine jewellery designer are also among the 17. They are Atalanta Weller, from south-west England, and Michael Lewis, from the Lake District at the north-west end of the country.

Weller is a graduate of the highly respected Cordwainers, a London college famous for the development of young shoe designers. Her ideal client is "a strong woman with a great sense of fun who enjoys her life and her shoes".

Lewis envisages the women who wear his shoes as "individual, chic, confident, with plenty of joie de vivre". 

Dominic Jones, who comes from southern England, holds a rare honour in NewGen history - he is one of a very few fine jewellers to be awarded the status. He launched his debut collection "Tooth and Nail" earlier this year (2009) and it was an instant hit. His jewellery is being stocked in stores across the world.