Bartley has made her Brit It Girl into a global byword for London street style and has a celebrity client list which includes Amy Winehouse, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sienna Miller, Mischa Barton and Chloe Sevigny.
Her decision to make a British comeback is a major reversal of the design drain that plagues London Fashion Week and has seen a steady stream of top talents including Alexander McQueen, Christopher Bailey for Burberry Prorsum, Stella McCartney, Matthew Williamson, Hussein Chalayan and Alice Temperley migrate to rival fashion capitals such as Milan, Paris and New York.
Bartley will show her spring/summer 08 collection at the next London Fashion Week in September.
A graduate of Central Saint Martin s fashion school, Bartley launched her own line in 1999 with a show called "Daddy I Want a Pony" staged in the flat of Pulp s bass guitarist, Steve Mackey.
She made her LFW debut the following February with a show called Daddy Who Were the Clash? which consolidated her reputation for funky, young clothes which mixed preppy and punk.
Six months later, the Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen was first out on the catwalk when Bartley staged her first show at New York Fashion Week. She began designing the Luella for Mulberry bags which proved to be one of the brand s best-selling designs in years.
This, in turn led to Club21, the Singapore-based retail group, which had just acquired a majority stake in Mulberry, investing in a global licensing agreement for Luella Bartley ready to wear and accessories.
The designer s decision to return to London coincides with the opening of her first stand alone Luella store in Mayfair in August. Born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Bartley, 32, lives with her fashion-photographer boyfriend David Sims and their two children, Kip and Stevie.
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