Sage mixes best of ancient and modern to get his designs on the map

"It's about history," the designer Russell Sage proclaimed after an autumn/winter 2002 show that provided a beautiful start to London Fashion Week.

"I was trying to build up this idea of antique luxury. I've always worked with antique fabrics but the idea has become so plagiarised – you can buy vintage on the high street – it doesn't mean anything anymore. So I was trying to find a way to make it special again by using the very best materials. I've used Gainsborough silks, Conolly leather, fur, Swarvoski crystal, and diamonds from the Diamond Corporation."

But this was no high-octane rich-bitch fest.

Sage successfully managed to take the past and create something completely modern and charming.

Gold 18th-century French hand-woven silk curtains were sliced into a coat, its hem gently fluttering with ancient bauble tassels, one arm decorated with huge curtain rings.

That same fabric was made into a dress and a wrap top, the edges raw and frayed with threads, used as a contrasting binding on a jacket that was softly tied with a karate belt and worn with wide evening trousers, or used as a panel in the middle of grey Venetian wool skirt suits with kimono sleeved tops to create blobs of raspberry and pea green damask.

If Sage's tailoring had taken a step forward so had his signature patriotism.

Street maps of London, Paris, Milan, and New York were painstakingly embroidered on to grey cotton felt skirts, tops, and dresses, the pretty coloured threads left hanging like limp party streamers.

Sage said: "The maps are by an artist called Lee Birkett who graduated from the Royal College of Art last year. It was about the idea of craftsmanship, with its patience and time. It took Lee three months to do those maps."

This directional modernity that balanced Sage's love of the antique was evident in his clash of textures and use of materials. The formality of damask contrasted sharply with dove-grey chunky knit that created dresses and jumpers with huge roll necks, with a fluffy Mongolian lamb skirt and a hooded winter coat, and the sheered mink "life-saver" collar that finished a green cashmere jumper.

Sage's play with tactile fabrics and textures was evident in a large glass collar set with an eight-carat diamond, in the flat pointy lace-up shoes whose black veneer had been scraped away to reveal white underneath, and the Swarvoski crystals that glittered from a cape and skirt of black organza.

The collection, called "All Change Please", saw Sage not only change direction but a catwalk strewn with loose change, pound coins and 50p pieces. The designer said: "It's kind of difficult to create something new every season but the sponsorships have made it work. Britannic Money, who have sponsored me for the past seasons, have been a bit of a godsend; I wouldn't exist without them ... It's been a struggle, but they have stood by me."

And that's what London Fashion Week is all about: the struggle and the stress that somehow makes for talent and creativity.