Debenhams have been lucky over the past few years. Their designer offerings include an impressive line-up of brands ranging from John Rocha to Matthew Williams but now, John Lewis is getting in on the action too. Earlier on this week the department store released the latest Somerset by Alice Temperley collection and already, the sales have exceeded all expectations so much so that it has become the most popular brand in the store's history.

More than a hundred shoppers queued outside the department store on Oxford Street on Tuesday to be amongst the first people to get their hands on the line and on that day alone, the brand took in eleven times the sales usually brought in on the day of a brand launch. But it doesn't end there. The line sold so well on the first day that by the afternoon, it had already met it's target for the week.

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Barbour's partnership with Alice Temperley is definitely one of the least expected partnerships we've seen recently. After all, despite her love of the countryside the designer has become synonymous with all things feminine. That being said, the partnership has actually gone down really well. So well, in fact, that the Barbour Gold Label have just announced that the collaboration, which began last summer, will continue for another season.

According to a release, the A/W12 collection features everything from chunky knits and jackets to shirts and jodhpurs, all done with a Temperley twist. The Fern Cape (£499) in the above image is one of her favourites: 'It's slightly eccentric and perfect for riding my bicycle,' she revealed.

Are you a fan of the range?

Today it's hard to find a brand that hasn't launched a diffusion line. Where sister lines were initially embraced by young brands trying to get their brand out there to the mass market through high street collaborations, more and more luxury brands are tapping into it too. Last month I spoke about Marchesa's plans to create a more affordable line and now Alice Temperley is following suit.

Yesterday the designer confirmed that she is teaming up with John Lewis to create a new line, Somerset by Alice Temperley, which is set to hit stores on September 4. The 60-piece collection is said to tap into many of the themes from the main line with prices ranging from £29 for a scarf to £1,000 for a sheepskin coat. 'I wanted it to be very much a collection of essentials and to design a collection that would provide a feminine and functional wardrobe for women in their everyday life,' she explained. 'We have spent the last ten years building our lines and Somerset will compliment our existing collections; it is a very accessible product that will take our aesthetic to a wider audience.'

The decadent One Great George Street in London's Westminster was the perfect backdrop to Alice Temperley's fall collection for Temperley London. Titled 'Renaissance', the collection took inspiration from religious paintings and decorative patterns and all things decadent which, on the whole, translated well.

The show opened in an interesting way. The first look - a long and lean floral applique cream dress - encapsulated the designer's bohemian aesthetic but the addition of the fur hat made it instantly clear that the look would be updated for fall. As the show progressed skirts came in gold brocade and 100 percent silk and one sheepskin and leather coats appeared in a rich brown teamed with a matching skirt and boots courtesy of Charlotte Olympia. The combination of contrasting fabrics and a rich colour palette worked well  and a carmel cross-back midnight blue evening dress that appeared towards the end will undoubtedly be seen on the backs of celebrities very soon. Unlike her past collections, though, this collection will divide critics and customers down the middle.

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2011 has been a good year for Alice Temperley. International interest in the designer hit the roof after Pippa Middleton's endorsement of the brand at the reception to the royal wedding and Pippa made an appearance at her S/S12 show back in September.

This year also marks the brand's 10th anniversary and the launch of her debut book, 'True Brit' but it doesn't there. The designer was recently named Designer of the Year at the 2011 Hollywood Style Awards Gala and rightly so. Other winners on the night include Arianne Phillps who walked away with the Costume Designer of the Year award, Chloe Moretz who was named as One to Watch and the Kylie and Kendal Jenner who were were presented with the Stylish Sisters Award.

2011 seems to be the year of the fashion book. Christian Louboutin and Mulberry have both released books celebrating their respective anniversaries and this week Alice Temperley is New York promting her new book, 'True British'.

Alber Elbaz is following suit, as the designer confirmed this week that he's working on his first book. Set for release next year, the book will feature 700 pages of words and pictures documenting the designers production and design process at Lanvin.

Alice Temperley

Target's designer collaboration GO International is turning five, and in celebration of the anniversary, the department chain is launching the GO International Designer Collective - a collection of 34 dresses from 17 designers who previously turned out budget-friendly capsule collections for the brand. The collection includes signature dresses from plenty of our favourites, including Alice Temperley, Luella Bartley, Tara Jarmon, Paul & Joe, Behnaz Sarafpour, Proenza Schouler, Libertine, Erin Fetherston, Jovovich-Hawk, Rogan, Richard Chai, Jonathan Saunders, Thakoon, Tracy Feith, Rodarte, Zac Posen and Tucker.

The range will sell in most Target stores and at Target.com from March 13 to April 10, 2011. Will you be stocking up? We know we will.

For the past 10 years, Alice Temperley has been the go-to girl for 'beautiful people' in need of a fabulously feminine yet glamourous, show-stopping evening dress. Her eye for detail and use of intricate beading and embroidery on the finest silks and other such fabrics have helped her carve a niche and has brought her a plethora of celebrity fans such as Courtney Cox, Sarah Jessica Parker and Claudia Schiffer, to name but a few.

As Temperley's business enters a new decade, it is clear that the designer is ready to take on a new type of clientele. Last year, she hinted that the label would be expanding, and now we know what she had in mind - a diffusion line named, 'Alice'. The range, which is clearly aimed at style-savvy fashionistas, will feature playsuits, T-shirt dresses, broderie-anglaise dresses and silk halter-neck maxi dresses. Prices will start at £58 for t-shirts, £180 for dresses, and go up to £440 for an uber-soft leather jacket. Citing the gloomy state of the global financial affairs, as the inspiration behind the range, she explained: "We started doing it because of everything that is happening at the moment...Lots of friends can't afford the mainline prices but would still love to wear Temperley. So we wanted to offer a different price point."

Discussing how she came up with the ideas behind the pieces, Temperley told the Times: "Once we decided to go for it, I got 10 girlfriends to pack a bag of their favourite things they always take on holiday and bring them over. We put everything on a rail, and it was pretty clear what we all wanted out of it." As the time has come to now unveil the pared-down and casual basics that make up the diffusion line, Temperley has chosen three of the capital's rising stars to front the range; Leah Weller, Tali Lennox and Clara Paget. Between them, these achingly cool creatives in the making illustrate just how versatile and wearable the pieces from the line are. We expect that the diffusion range will be very well received by new and old Temperley fans. Indeed the lady herself is aware of the potential for success. "... There will be stand-alone stores soon, we're launching a big interactive website using all the latest technology," she said. "We're creating a whole world around it."

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The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) has recently announced the launch of its new pop-up shop in central London. The UK-based charity is known for its work in empowering individuals who "suffer most from environmental abuses, (such as forced child labour and environmental abuses in cotton production), to find peaceful ways of preventing them."

With this in mind, the charity once again has returned to their temporary home in Kingly Court, off Carnaby Street, but this time are stocking up-to-the-minute sample (pre-season) men's and women's T-shirts and 100 Eley Kishimoto designed eco-friendly shopper bags at £10 each, (which were also seen on the front row at LFW earlier in September), for a limited period only. The t-shirts feature art from a number of designers, including cream-of-the-crop of British designers such as Luella, Giles Deacon, Betty Jackson, Zandra Rhodes, Alice Temperley, Katherine Hamnett, Jenny Packham, Richard Nicoll and Ciel. T-shirts can be bought separately, but savvy shoppers can invest in two t-shirts and get a free EK shopper.

With the likes of Lily Cole, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Ashley Jensen and Nic Hoult, amongst over 50 others, having been spotted sporting the organic Continental cotton t-shirts, it is likely they'll be an instant hit. More to the point, as there is only a limited amount on stock available, the T-shirts will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis so you would be wise to head over to White Gold, 1st Floor Kingly Court, London, W1B as quickly as your 5-inch heels can get you there. And as Christmas is round the corner, it would seem that there is no better time to do your bit for charity, whilst snapping up some presents your friends and family will definitely not want to take back after the festive period.

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