BRIGHTON and Hove is a hotbed for fashion talent.

Gresham Blake sells bespoke menswear from his shop and the city also boasts Ong Oaj Pairam, who came to Brighton as a teenager.

He has been inspired by the city to become one of the top designers in the world, his clothes worn by Cheryl Fernandez-Versini and Game of Thrones star Natalie Dormer wore one of his outfits at a film premiere.

Meanwhile Brighton Fashion Week is notorious for giving budding designers the chance to make bold statements.

And fashion inspiration and individuality courses through the veins of the city, from mothers pushing prams with bright rainbow leg-warmers and pink dreadlocks to green bearded men.

A quick trip down to North Laine will almost certainly spark a sighting of many of these style tribes - including legendary local heroes such as James “the slow moving punk” - seen dressed head to toe in perfectly co-ordinated cowboy outfits - or Rave Grandad.

The most important looks of the 1960s originated here - Ben Sherman launched his shirts which went on to become the Mod uniform in Brighton in 1963. And that desire to break away from the pack has never died.

Being home to one of the country’s leading fashion schools - at the University of Brighton - has helped.

From the likes of Biba founder Barbara Hulanicki and former Givenchy creative director Julien Macdonald, the city is a breeding ground of fashion creativity.

Fred Butler, who designed Lady Gaga’s telephone hat, said that studying fashion design in the city “was the first time I’d met people with the same aesthetic as me. It was exciting”.

Perhaps it’s no surprise as the North Laine is home to the highest concentration of independent shops in the country.

The late rock critic Steven Wells once described Brighton and Hove as a city full of “crusty-wusty, hippy-dippy, ning-nang-nongers”, and we welcome and celebrate it.

Director of Brighton Fashion Week Lizzy Bishop said Brighton and Hove’s eccentric dressers were part of what first appealed to her about the city.

“You can be whoever you want,” she said. “You can be yourself. And people won't judge you for that. That’s a lovely thing. You wont be laughed at or stared at for what you wear.

Davey Coles - manager of Vine Street vintage warehouse Beyond Retro - where “Slow James” shops for many of his eccentric looks said: “Everyone takes their inspiration from someone else. So the more inspirational people there are around the more it breeds off that.

“What you think is perfectly normal in Brighton you’ll go to London wearing and get some funny looks.

“But I think it’s because we’re so accepting.”