Now Ziff has launched the Model Alliance, a non-profit organisation that ”provides a platform for models and leaders in the fashion industry to organize to radically improve the conditions under which models work”. The initiative, which is focused on supporting models in the United States, has attracted support from high-profile names like Coco Rocha and Diane von Furstenberg.

By contrast, here in the UK (where models are eligible to join the Equity union), there has been some bad news ahead of London Fashion Week: Erin O’Connor’s Model Sanctuary will not be operating this season, due to difficulties in securing a venue. In a statement on the Model Sanctuary website, Erin indicates that she hopes the Sanctuary will be back in September with a permanent home.

The move represents a compromise by the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) and the British Fashion Council (BFC). NYFW will now start just a few days after the United States’ Labor Day national holiday, which falls on the first Monday in September, putting increased pressure on designers showing at NYFW. The BFC (which had already been disadvantaged last September by many top models’ late arrival from New York and early departure to Milan to attend pre-casting for the Gucci show) also faced a challenge in rescheduling, due to the fact that the main LFW venue, Somerset House, is set to become “Casa Brasil” during this year’s Olympic Games. With the Paralympics closing ceremony occurring on September 9th, it was only possible to schedule a September 14th start for LFW with the cooperation of the Brazilian Olympic Committee.

In 2008, the organisers of the four major fashion weeks agreed a coordinated schedule, with NYFW starting on the second Thursday in September, and the London, Milan and Paris events following on, sequentially. However, last year, the MFW organisers, Camera Nationale della Moda (CNdM) announced dates for September 2012 which would clash with both New York and London, claiming that the 2008 agreement was only valid for three years. Chambre Syndicale followed the Italians by announcing that Paris Fashion Week would start straight after MFW finished.

There is, as yet, no word on what CNdM will do for 2013 but their thinking is likely to be influenced by the backlash they experienced when they announced this year’s dates – the chairman of Condé Nast went so far as to write to the Italians to warn them that the editors of Vogue (including Anna Wintour and Alexandra Shulman) would skip Milan’s shows if they clashed with New York and London. Now that the CFDA and British Fashion Council have gone to extra mile to avoid a clash this year, many would consider continued intransigence on the part of the Italians to be churlish. The Parisians, too, are likely to play a significant role, as the two largest fashion conglomerates – LVMH and PPR – are French.

“It’s been going from strength to strength,” she told us. “I’ve got a few stockists now and received a lot of really lovely press coverage. It seems to be going in the right direction.”

This collection was inspired by Hackney Wick area of East London, which Anna describes as her muse. “The inspiration comes from what I see, so every time you go there, it’s a different colour combination and it directly influences my collection.”

Phannatiq is stocked at 123 Bethnal Green Road in London, Shoreditch Muse in Dubai and online at BENGT Fashion.

She told us that things are going well. ”I’ve got more stockists. I’ve got PR now. I’m moving to a studio from my living-room, which is nice! I think it’s getting more professional now. I’ve had to work full-time on this collection for the past few months.”

Last season, Sini showed at the Zip Zone trade show in Paris and she’s going back again this season. “There were actually more buyers in Paris than in London,” she told us.

Tramp in Disguise is stocked at Beyond the Valley, British Designers at Fashion Capital, Not Just a Label, Offset Warehouse and BYELF.

“I’ve always wanted to work with social enterprises,” she told us.”That goes back to my childhood because I’ve seen my parents do a lot of charitable work when I was growing up in Pakistan. When Iwas 17, I worked with the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. They actually pioneered microcredit and their founder, Muhammad Yunus, won a Nobel Prize for it. I saw the impact of giving the poorest of the world capital and a dream and a job, and that completely stayed with me for the rest of my life.

I did different things, worked in different corporate jobs but this was a dream of mine. Recently, I was working for Pepsi in marketing and I was doing a good job there and I though ‘Okay, if I can market the best brands in the world, why can’t I market something I’m very close to?’. So then I got onto this journey of discovering brands that are high-end, high fashion and have a social conscience. At the moment, I’m featuring four, all from the developing world – Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Middle East and Africa – and they have a very similar social mandate, which is to really empower women in marginalised communities. They teach them skills, to enhance their creative skills. The women can work from home so they’re not tampering with any social norms. They pay them money per piece, which is quite high compared to what they would get if they were to work in a factory, and they also give them a share of profits. More than that, they instil an idea of their self-worth and their creativity and the women feel really empowered. It changes the way men look at them, the way their families interact with them.

“What I want to do with Fashion ComPassion is open more markets and make sure that these brands have a future and more people see them because they truly are works of art. I want these women’s messages to be heard and people to know that they’re really like us – they’re as creative, they’re as smart but they just don’t have a platform and I want to create that for them.”

“All our products are hand-made and it takes about five weeks to make them because they don’t start until we order. It’s completely bespoke. I’m wearing a burqa dress [see left] which is in green. Somebody else ordered it in white so it’ll be manufactured to the lady’s measurements and she can put a different trimming on it if she wants.”

Currently, Fashion ComPassion is selling from their website but they plan to partner up with other charitable organisations and, eventually, with retailers. You can view the full range of products on offer through their website.

“We’ve won the Elle LaunchPad award,” she told us. “We picked up a lot of new stockists off the back of that – some really good independents – and they’ll continue to mentor us going forward. Lorraine [editor of Elle] came by to do a personal order. We’re showing at Paris in a couple of weeks, we’re taking the colection to Japan. We’ve had lots of great press and Harrods are taking the collection this season.

“With the collection being quite young and without having done too much marketing, the clothes seem to be selling themselves in Harrods, which puts us up there with some really big name. It feels like people are starting to learn a bit more about the brand and the demand has picked up.”

We asked her if it felt like she’d reached a point where it felt like she’d begun to achieve what she’d set out to when she founded the label. “I  feel like not all the hard work is done but I feel like I’m now past those initial few years where you just don’t know how it’s going to go. Coming from a finance background as well, having given up all that to start on something totally, totally brand new – it’s a little bit of a relief to get the award and the endorsement and the pat on the back from such great industry names.”

Was the background in finance a benefit in developing the label? “I think it’s really helped. I originally studied architecture which is half design, half maths and now, you’ll see that my collection is quite symmetrical – I like things to add up, you know, straight lines and quite clean, quite methodical in ways.”

Finally, there’s also some good news in Zoe’s personal life. “I got engaged in January and we’re getting married in Majorca in four weeks!” Unsurprisingly, Zoe’s designed her own dress.

We wish Zoe all the best for her nuptials and the ongoing ascent of her label. You can find the new collection at irwinandjordan.com

See below for more photos from backstage during Issa London’s preparations for their catwalk show at London Fashion Week.