In New York, Amanda Wakeley would fit right in to the schedule: like Diane Von Furstenberg or Carolina Herrera, she's a self-taught designer who's translated her own needs and preferences into a full-blown uptown fashion label. But in London -- a city whose fashion week is dominated by young, volatile, college-trained names -- her brand of sophisticatedly understated, tried-and-tested elegance sticks out like a sore thumb.

But she's also an anomaly in that's she's run that same label successfully for over two decades. And today, in her new store on Albermarle Street (flanked by Asprey and Garrard, and just up the road from Paul Smith and Victoria Beckham's about-to-open flagship), she set out to demonstrate the reasons for her enduring appeal. Executed entirely in crisp whites, the collection was dominated by fluid, easy silhouettes: slinky wrap dresses, side-tied wide-legged trousers, lightweight bomber jackets and fine tunics. There were some concessions to the current luxe-sportswear mood, in the use of athletic sheers and meshes, and in the delicately-drawn white-on-white graphic detailing which played against the collection's overriding softness. But, by and large, it was a case of carefully considered, quietly elegant business as usual.