Hurrah for Zara If all

WE LONDONERS are embarrassed with fashion riches on our high street.

No other nation has the choice, not to mention the quality, that we enjoy - from Top Shop's fizzy stuff for teens, grownup knitwear at Jigsaw and good old M&S looking after our every need like the nation's grandmother.

Nothing beats it. Except, perhaps, a new import - from Spain, of all places, about as famous for its fashion as Norway is for its music industry. By next month, one of the world's most successful fashion chains will open for the first time in the UK. Its name is Zara, and, unless you are a fashion insider (in which case you'll have been shopping in the Paris branch for years), you might never have heard of it. When the doors of the new Regent Street shop open at the end of November, shoppers will be excused for dancing in the street: inside, they'll find more spot-on designer-looks than you can shake a chorizo sausage at. From grey flannel parallel trousers, cashmere-mix camisoles and sunray pleat skirts to bias knits and funnel-neck sweaters, name the trend and Zara's got it. Walk in with a hundred pounds, and you'll leave with a whole outfit, shoes and all. Top fashion editors and models (including Claudia Schiffer) have kept the name Zara to themselves for years. At the recent fashion shows in Paris, they returned to their hotel rooms, not with the usual array of Collette bags, but struggling under a ton-weight of Zara carriers. Tucked inside were grey dresses (GBP 500 at Donna Karan, GBP 44 at Zara), felted-wool tops (GBP 22) and piles of grey V-necks (GBP 18). After Prada and Gucci, Zara has fast become the label of choice for the fashion editor at the catwalk-side. Not that she'll be breaking her neck to tell you about it. She'll be the one who conveniently "forgets" where she bought that Velcro-fastening shirt that looks as though it just touched down on a Milan runway. Who wants to boast that their shirt cost less than a couple of sandwiches at Pret a Manger? Zara is set to be a powerhouse on the high street, with potential to knock the competition - impressive though it is - for six. With an annual turnover of GBP 800 million and more than 700 stores internationally (the company aims to double that by the millennium - it is currently opening one shop each week), the chain is growing fast. The Regent Street shop is the first of many lined up for the UK. The next is an outlet at the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, opening next March. Now in its 35th year, Zara is owned by Spanish entrepreneur Amancia Ortega-Gaona. Like the world's most elusive fashion designers, he has never been photographed; there are no Zara press offices, and no advertising campaigns. Yet the clothes have tags including prices in 10 currencies, testament to the company's global outlook. And even in lire, the prices look cheap. The only difference between Zara and a Prada boutique is price (OK, quality too, if truth be told; but a fashion trend and a Zara top have a similar lifespan - who could ask for more?). Zara even has ex-Prada girl Amber Valetta in its brochure, alongside Carolyn Murphy, the face of Dolce and Gabbana. The secret of its success is not hype but speed. Today's high- street shopper wants the latest trends ... yesterday. Zara provides. With its own factories in China and warehouses near the fishing village of La Corua in northern Spain, the company can turn around a new product before you can say hasta la vista. So, before the world's fashion editors and buyers have unpacked after their marathon international show circuit, the team of 50 designers (at least five times as many as some of its UK competition) will be deciding which key looks will be packing the shelves in the weeks to come. And if you don't get there fast, you'll lose out. The policy is to keep new lines coming in thick and fast. The factories operate for 22 hours daily, using 65,000 metres of fabric each day. There are 11,000 new lines every year, and 50,000 items produced per day. Stores are replenished twice a week, and every three weeks there is something different - so if you missed that tweed pencil skirt the first time round, don't expect to see it again. One fashion editor is still rueing the day she passed up the chance of a waffle-knit sweater (so Marc Jacobs!) and the cream kilted skirt (very Trussardi!) in the New York branch. The next day, it was all boiled- wool shell tops (pure Philosophy). There's menswear too, so don't expect gaggles of boyfriends and husbands to be loitering by the Regent Street door. They'll be stuck into the black jackets in buttery soft leather for around GBP 200 (not unlike Agns B's version, GBP 600). Or the blond suede desert boots with a tractor tread (around GBP 40), or the mid-grey chalk- stripe wide-leg trousers - that's a lot of adjectives for a pair of pants, but Zara's power lies in the right details. The shop will no doubt have all the answers for winter dressing when it opens next month - and the only question you'll be left with is why Zara's UK appearance has taken so long.

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