How marketing techniques - diffusion, franchising and licensing - can mean success or failure for a designer. And a look at Giorgio Armani's lessons in labelling.

For these three fashion designers, cloth is the essence of the art of design. Futurist Issey Miyake makes hi-tech, innovative use of fabric; Gianni Versace , loved by film and pop stars, uses vibrant silk prints; and Christian Lacroix creates clothes out of fabric painstakingly hand-woven by former down-and-outs.