The brands will set the stage for a fashion battle between two strikingly different fashion moods: nostalgia and nouveau.

Up against the vintage brands are a tribe of young, thrusting fashion creators, all under 30 and all intent on success, including Christopher Kane, Gareth Pugh, Giles Deacon, Louise Goldin, Henry Holland and Marios Schwab, many of whom are sponsored by Topshop.

The ‘oldies revolution’ will be boosted by the return of the high priestess of punk, now Dame Vivienne Westwood, who is showing at London Fashion Week for the first time in eight years.

Katharine Hamnett, another fashion radical of the older generation, renowned for her 'protest T-shirts' is also returning to the event's exhibition.

Biba, originally founded by the style and retail icon Barbara Hulanicki, which will show today, has been through several reincarnations and is now in the hands of a team of young British fashion graduates, under the artistic direction of Hector Castro, a former fashion editor and stylist with Dazed and Confused magazine and Italian Vogue.

“We’ve been through the archives and we’re concentrating on the ‘Biba Shoulder’ and her famous cloche hat,” said Castro. “But there’s a mix of inspirations, such as Victorian birds prints, dark forests and a contemporary update with laser cutting techniques.”

Ossie Clark, the name of one of the 1960’s and 70’s most illustrious designers, a tragic drug addict who was stabbed to death by his gay former lover in 1996, will make its debut tomorrow (Monday February 11th) – the first time it has been seen on the catwalk for nearly a quarter of a century.

Its revival has been masterminded by the fashion entrepreneur, Mark Worth, who two years ago sold his WGSN news website for £170 million to the EMAP group.

“It’s a fantastic challenge and right now seems the right time for the re-launch of a vintage label,” he said yesterday.

Worth is investing £3 million into the Ossie Clark re-launch and plans to build it into a global fashion brand within three years, with a young fashion team headed by the Central Saint Martins graduate, Avsh Alom Gur, who previously worked for Donna Karan, Roberto Cavalli and Nicole Farhi.

“It’s the first in a stable of young talent I’m building. I want to prove British fashion can be a global fashion success.”

This season’s London Fashion Week, in a tented village at the Natural History Museum, features 57 catwalk shows over six days and more than 200 ready-to-wear and accessory designers, including the up-and-coming young shoe designers, Nicholas Kirkwood and Rupert Sanderson.

Sponsored by Canon, the event is expected to attract more than 5,000 visitors, inject £20 million into the London economy and generate more than £50 million in global media coverage.