Twice a year, in spring and autumn, London’s fashionistas go【C1】_____at the second of the world’s “big four” fashion weeks. From September 16th to the 21st, 68 catwalk shows【C2】__the wares of mainly British-based designers, with celebrities【C3】_____attendance.

A study by Oxford Economics for the British Fashion Council (BFC) found that the business【C4】________ about £21 billion to GDP directly, twice as much as car making. High fashion【C5】_____for only a fraction of that, but top-end, trend-setting design sits at the heart of the broader retail market. The BFC, which stages London Fashion Week,【C6】_____that its six days will have yielded perhaps £100 million in orders.

More than that, fashion is【C7】_____the sort of thing Britain is supposed to be good at in this post-industrial age: creative, high-value-added, cluster-based.【C8】_____the country does excel.

But there are characteristically British【C9】_____, too. Many【C10】__have trouble【C11】_____their ideas into cash.

This is only partly【C12】_____capital is hard to come by. “Here, it’s all about【C13】__. In other places it’s much【C14】__of a business,” says a Central St Martins student who has worked in France. The agent for a number of new designers【C15】__: “Young designers here just make【C16】__inspires them【C17】_____thinking enough about how much they’ll have to 18 for it, or who will buy it.” A great many fold after a few years.

A big【C19】_____now is to conquer developing markets【C20】_____developing-world fashion houses conquer Britain. The BFC is taking designers to Hong Kong next month, and to Beijing and Shanghai next year, says Harold Tillman, its chairman.

【C8】