Fashion student Jason, with his backwards baseball cap and nonchalant hands in pockets stance, looks like he's straight out of an '80s American cult film. We feel like we could have seen him back in the day staring alongside Matthew Broderick in Ferris Bueller's Day Off or lurking in the background of The Goonies somewhere.

Whatever his style reference really is, we'd like to think he's been trying to channel that vibe during London Fashion Week.

Because: What are you doing here today?

Jason: I'm working for Cassette Playa.

Can you describe your style?

I just really take my inspiration from people I see on the street.

Jason is wearing:

Ralph Lauren shirt

Vintage Jacket

Nike trainers

Johnny Marr
Songsmith/Salford Star/Shady Dealer

While a certain other former Smith still seems to make headlines every time he appears in public, Johnny Marr has a remarkable habit of getting on with things quietly. It's only when the 47-year-old guitar hero finally stops playing, and starts to reflect on it all, that you realise quite how many things.

In an armchair on a stage in a recording studio on the edge of Salford (whose university he joined as guest lecturer a couple of years back), Marr sipped a nice cup of tea and reflected on some of the gigs he'd had since The Smiths ended almost a quarter of a century ago: Electronic, The Pretenders, Americans Modest Mouse and Wakefield's The Cribs, whom he joined as guitarist and producer. He played on the score, and at the premiere, for last year's action epic Inception. "I remember sitting in the back of the coach on the way to Glastonbury with The Cribs," he said, "trying to practice playing the Inception music. I was nervous - I'd never played with an orchestra, rather than a band, before." Since then, he's remastered the just-released Smiths back catalogue.

Marr's willingness to work with other people's orchestras and bands (see also: Pet Shop Boys, Talking Heads, Girls Aloud) is testament to what an unassuming enthusiast he is. But it also feels a bit topsy-turvy that such a virtuoso has so often seemed willing to play second-fiddle. Which is why it is such a pleasure to see him finally play the Rock God when we met: not only did he confess he was prepping and refining songs for a 2012 solo release; he also shamelessly wore his sunglasses indoors.

That was down to Marr's latest endeavour, a collaboration with Ray-Ban called Raw Sounds, the latest in a sequence of annual music projects by the eyewear brand. Johnny's musical mentor role saw him first pick a quintet of unlikely inspirations (including an 18th century poem and a new, cascading Marr guitar part) and then share them with four hot music acts - including London's Tom Vek and effortlessly anthemic new Nashville retro-rockers Mona. The acts then recorded their own songs, based around Marr's muses.

"I loved hearing the songs they created," he said. "Art In Motion - it's a privilege." As well as recording the songs and filming behind-the-scenes documentaries on how they did it, the four acts (Best Coast and Au Revoir Simone round out the list) will conclude their involvement by playing live at specially-arranged shows in the US and UK in the coming weeks.

Also coming soon: Johnny Marr's own pair of Ray-Bans, which he designed in his other creative direction role for Raw Sounds. Due to go on sale next month, his "signature glasses", seen here, have gunmetal frames bearing his name, and light blue lenses.

In the download world, bands depend on brand projects like Raw Sounds to survive. Noting this, Marr recalled how even The Smiths were more relaxed about "selling out" than his hardcore heroes, like '60s folk rebel Bert Jansch. He was happy to work with Ray-Ban because, "When I first started out with The Smiths, I wore them all the time." In the early '80s, he worked in a Manchester shop that was the first in the city to get Ray-Ban glasses in - and made sure he ordered himself one pair so he could be the envy of his peers. Though only 1500 of his new design have been produced, we're confident he will end up with at least a couple.

Kyle Robinson
Businessman/Buyer/Fashion theorist

Being smart, handsome, effortlessly stylish, funny and at ease in the company of women and women's fashion, it didn't take Kyle Robinson long to make his mark when he arrived in London in his early 20s. Naturally, somehow managing to be all that and straight made him stand out even more. Rather than bask in it, though, he's been getting up and going from day one.

Five years after he left Melbourne for the UK, Robinson has just founded his second fashion showroom here. Paper Mache Tiger is where he and his team showcase their labels, meet buyers and work with stores and, increasingly, online operations too. It's set in an impressive former bank building on the fringes of the city, next to his former company (and Hussein Chalayan's), and opposite the headquarters of Vice. Inside, the new company's big white basement space is like a fashion Aladdin's Cave, with clothes, jewellery and accessories from their roster of brands (which include Stolen Girlfriends Club, Athena Procopiou, Beau Coops and Damien Hirst's partner Maia Norman's ultra high-end Mother of Pearl label). When we visited, they were once again preparing to put the entire contents of their substantial space into the back of a lorry.

"Four times a year, we pack the whole showroom up and take all the collections to Paris. Some of the things that happen along the way are hilarious", Robinson explains. "You could make a great movie about that journey. And of course, if you don't speak French in Paris… good luck." Not that he's complaining - France, Robinson says, is leading the way in directional, affordable women's fashion. "They're calling it the French Invasion," he says. "Nobody else is coming close at the moment. It's good - it keeps everybody over here on their toes."

Robinson himself shows few no signs of needing incentives to stay alert. Having become fascinated with advertising at school and studied fine art at university, he started out in a variety of styling and buying roles, working for companies like MTV and being asked to fly all over the place dressing squadrons of models - "It was the best job in the world!" He began representing small designers via friends of friends and chance meetings, and arrived in London just as British fashion was waking up to the new wave of Australian fashion designers emerging in hip, creative corners of cities like Sydney and Melbourne.

Though his list of labels is now heavy with UK and European brands, the basic principle is the same: Robinson believes in emerging labels, bold design and new ideas over safety, whatever the complications. "We've got this great label called Draw in Light, two girls who are based not far from us. They make these beautiful pieces and silkscreen the prints by hand, so no two are identical. But when a woman orders two versions online so she can keep the one that fits - which is what usually happens - she's going to see two versions that aren't identical. We've already had problems with that."

With menswear, from which he's pulled back somewhat of late, Robinson says the biggest problem - especially in a recession - is getting men to diverge from the brands they are loyal to and experiment with new ones. He has clever ideas about that, of course, but since he's about to start a family and rebuild a historic home (the BBC reality show is coming to your screens soon, seriously), they're going to have to wait a bit. Online, offline, on the rails or on the ferry, it's hard  to imagine Robinson getting there sooner rather than later.