The high priestesses of the high street We meet the design teams behind three booming high street brands. CAREN DOWNIE AND SARAH WILKINSON, ASOS.COM In keeping with its young core customer, the asos.com design team gathers inspiration as much from a nightclub in east London as from the vintage shops of Paris. At the headquarters in north London, Asos's fashion director, Caren Downie, 51, and the womenswear design director, Sarah Wilkinson, 36, head a team of 26 designers responsible for all Asos clothing and accessories. Each week thousands of new products are uploaded to the site, which attracts more than 18.5 million unique visitors a month. Downie said, 'Our customer is fashion-hungry and she's always interested in the next thing. We have a "New In" category on the site, which gets looked at an awful lot. The brainstorming for spring/summer 2012 began in August 2011, before the international catwalks, and was then checked against them afterwards. The team discussed what was coming through from the street, festivals and general social trends, and created mood boards featuring images taken in-house or from magazines and books. Fabrics, vintage clothing, samples and even home furnishings were collected on research trips to Seoul and Berlin. Spring/summer key trends include sports, Mex-Tex featuring embroidery and fringing, Darling Buds (1950s floral dresses) and a metallics trend called Midas Touch. 'Fun is a word we talked about a lot for spring/summer 2012,' Wilkinson said. We felt a pure sense of fun and liberation, like a backlash against all of the dark things going on in the world. We've called it the season of optimism.' HELEN LOW, Marks & Spencer Model wears dress, £69, Per Una Speziale. Helen Low wears scarf-print shirt, £25, M&S Woman; jeggings, £22.50 (0845-302 1234; marksandspencer.com) Photo: Rebecca Miller Marks & Spencer womenswear has 21 million people passing through its doors every week, so overseeing the design process is no mean feat, as Helen Low, the head of design for M&S brands, knows. Low, 44, works alongside Neil Hendy, the head of design for M&S Woman, and a team of 40 designers. The creative process for spring/summer starts 12 months in advance. 'We'll look at where we think colour is going, at print, at what fabric mills are telling us is going to be important, as well as exhibitions and what we call inspiration travel: visiting shops and markets,' Low said. Mood boards are created using pictures 'from magazines, fabric swatches, prints and colours that excite us'. The team works on multiple brands, on up to three seasons at a time. For spring/summer there are five 'umbrella trends'. Track Stars is an Olympics-timed sporty trend, which for the Autograph collection uses soft fabrics and ladylike tailoring, while for Limited uses grey marl and bomber jackets. Culture Clash mixes every type of print from big florals to tribal prints. Park Avenue is a prim, ladylike trend using pastel colours and dolly dresses. Deco Diva is the 1920s trend using drop waists and opulent fabrics. Miami Kitsch features sherbet-bright scarf prints and Capri trousers. Bestsellers include coloured jeggings, prints and florals, but Low predicted the season's bestsellers to be printed dresses. Print is a major message for spring/summer in all its guises. JANE SHEPHERDSON AND NICK PASSMORE, Whistles Jane Shepherdson (far left) wears yellow dotty tweed top, £135, and black Mia tailored trousers, £110. Model wears green border stripe shell top, £85, and skirt, £150. Nick Passmore (right) wears black trousers, £95 (0845-899 1222; whistles.co.uk) Photo: Rebecca Miller 'We think of ourselves as the thinking woman's brand,' said the Whistles CEO Jane Shepherdson, 48, in her office in north London. Our customer tends to be an intelligent women who wants something beautiful that will last. She wants to look fashionable without looking like a fool. The spring/summer collection comprises 32 pieces. The team of five designers is led by the design director, Nick Passmore, 48. In the February before the collection is due to be launched the team collates ideas from library research, markets and photographs. 'Whether it's a high street or designer collection, everybody seems to have the same influences,' Passmore said. 'For instance, during a trip to the Rose Bowl market in LA we instinctively picked up floral prints that we hadn't looked at before. We hadn't done any florals in the range.' Other key looks include colourful tailoring and scarf-print dresses. Collections are tweaked after the international collections and also depending on the reaction of customers. For example, when the neon-pink pleated Carrie skirt, of which Whistles made 100, hit stores last February in the snow, it sold out instantly and 5,000 more were made and sold. Do they ever make mistakes? Everyone gets it wrong all the time in this business. It's a completely impossible world to be in.' Passmore cited mustard and rust as two colours that never sold. Luckily for Whistles, print and colour is its perennial bread and butter, so this season looks set to be a feast.