Topshop to pull a Fast one?

Mark Fast will join Topshop's designer roster, it's rumoured.

According to industry sources, Mark Fast has joined the revered stable of designers who create lines for Topshop season on season.

While a spokeswoman for Topshop was unable to confirm the news today, chances are that an announcement is in the pipeline. Fast has been sponsored to show his collections at London Fashion Week by Topshop's prestigious New Generation scheme for the past two seasons, which is precisely how the store's other big name collaborators - among them Christopher Kane, Preen, Richard Nicoll and Danielle Scutt - got on board.

Should the whispers prove true, this could be just the thing to catapult Fast into a whole new league. Born and raised in Canada, Fast moved to the UK to study fashion at Central Saint Martins and was quickly adopted as a 'London designer'. He claims to be inspired by "the grimy and glamorous mix of people" in the city and his experimental knits have already won him an army of in-the-know fans. He remained a relative unknown outside of fashion circles before hitting the headlines during London Fashion Week earlier this month, when two members of his team resigned after he insisted on sending size 12 and 14 models down the catwalk.

It's likely that Topshop will now be seeking to capitalise on the positive public response the story generated.

"We are glad we stuck to our vision," Amanda May, Fast's creative director, said at the time. "There's an idea that only thin and slender women are able to wear Mark's dresses and he wanted to combat that. We wanted women to know they didn't have to be a size zero to wear a Mark Fast dress - curvier women can look even better in them."

Picture: A 'larger' model walks for Mark Fast, spring/summer 2010 at London Fashion Week.

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