From Jean Muir and Nicole Farhi to Anne Storey

A designer with an immaculate track record launches her own label of accessible, classic clothes in beautiful fabrics. What more could a grown-up woman want, says Belinda Morris

I'm not yet out of my thermal vest, haven't even thought about putting away my woollies, and I've already seen my wardrobe for next winter. All of it. And I want it now.

I've just had a sneak preview of the second collection by a new British designer. Except that Anne Storey isn't brand-new, which goes a long way to explaining why her clothes will find a ready home in my Middle Youth wardrobe. She isn't new as in "bums hanging out the back of dresses" new (her words). She's new as in "emerged reluctantly into the spotlight after invaluable grounding in the shadows of the fashion industry".

But not any old grounding. Storey's design sensibilities, her philosophy on dressing, bear the hallmarks of invaluable experience gained while working for the likes of Jean Muir and, more recently, Nicole Farhi. An obvious appreciation of beautiful fabrics and close attention to detail are combined with her own painterly eye for colour (albeit muted colour, never garish) and a strong sense of the tactile (I'd go so far as to say cuddly, in some cases).

And as an early-fortysomething career woman, with her head more commonly to be found in a supermarket than in the clouds, she has a focused, realistic view of where her collection is headed. "I don't have an ageist image of the woman I design for," she explains. "But she's individual, without being quirky. She knows what she wants and needs, and prefers clothes that you don't have to think about, whether at work or doing the school run. These are clothes that can be dressed up, or down. I didn't want the collection to be elitist. If only three people can afford it, then it's couture. But if it's accessible, people can buy more and it's designed to build throughout the season, and from season to season as well as year on year. A good piece shouldn't date."

Yorkshire born and bred, Anne Storey is the best walking advertisement for her collection - despite the fact that she modestly fought (and failed, obviously), to give the line an anonymous moniker rather than her own. "It's about working as a team, not one person who is so fantastic that they can do everything on their own," she argues.

When I meet her in her light and spacious King's Road showroom, she's wearing a dark, three-quarter-length tailored jacket from the spring collection, with slim, matching pants and a black T-shirt. It's minimal, and clearly shows her liking for an easy, masculine look. But, for spring especially, the soft and feminine edge is apparent, with transparent organza pin-tucked and embroidered silk shirts, stretch vests, and loose linen knits to offset the sharpness of wool mohair suits and the easiness of worker jackets and drawstring pants.

Having grown up in the heart of the British woollen industry, and with a mother who made all her clothes - "even my coats" - Anne doesn't remember a time when she wasn't interested in fashion, and by 16 she was mastering (prophetically) complicated Jean Muir patterns on her own. With an MDes. from the Royal College of Art after her name, she left London for Italy in 1979 - a time noted for its exodus of British-trained design students. But abroad wasn't all it was cracked up to be. A lonely stint working in Florence for a traditional, family-run company was followed two seasons later by a flight home and the relief of freelance jobs in Britain.

Working for Jean Muir, a designer she respected enormously, "was the dream job", but allowed less rein to Anne's personal creativity in an atmosphere of subdued restraint. It was when assisting Nicole Farhi, who was initially designing for French Connection and the Stephen Marks collections, that she found her real calling and the "incredible breadth of experience" that now stands her in such good stead. After about 15 years with the company, she decided that she really wanted to go it alone - "and the fashion business was all I knew".

A chance introduction to Robert Eitel and Victoria Simpson, who are both ex-Paul Costelloe, has led to the small but perfectly formed team that is Anne Storey. There are no grand plans (yet) for global domination, but already the word has spread and fashion retailers from around the country are ready to place autumn '98 orders - in some cases, before the spring deliveries are on the rails. Which is almost-unheard-of folly in these uncertain times. And there is a whisper of an Anne Storey shop in the not-too-distant future.

Without giving too much of the game away, I can reveal that winter highlights include: washed wool fabrics with a broken weave, and a denim feel, even for plush wool velvets made into drawstring pants that soften the line of a tailored jacket. For a slicker look, there are chalk-striped jackets, to be worn over crisp white cotton shirts. The formal trousers are cut to be wide but not voluminous. Cosy alpaca sweaters with high, loose necklines look lovely under granite boiled-wool car coats and dufflecoats. Colours are murky and muted, with splashes of earthily bright and pale pastel colours thrown in.

Anne Storey's spring/summer collection will be at Fenwick of Bond Street, London W1, Windsor, Tunbridge Wells and Hendon; Barkers, London W8; Frasers of Glasgow; Morgan Clare, Harrogate; Tutu, Nottingham; and Hero, Cambridge (0171-460 1268 for full list of stockists).