What do you wear to meet one of the hottest new UK fashion designers? Conscious of finding a happy medium between too try hard and too scruffy, I opt for a shirt dress and boots, but as soon as I am warmly greeted by an enviously fresh-faced and frankly rather gorgeous Emma Griffiths at her Shoreditch studio apartment, I realise all worries were unfounded.

Petite in stature, with an edgy blonde pixie-cut, Emma, who has worked with fashion royalty Alexander McQueen and Boudicca, politely offers me a drink in her plucky Welsh accent before clambering into a comfy armchair and settling down for a good gossip about her debut collection for her women’s label e.g..

Looking much younger than her 30 years, the designer fiddles with her hair and laughs when I ask her to describe her collection, before revealing: “My boyfriend (business partner Jeanpierre Kalebic) says you have to know your answer to this question, and I never do.

“I guess, it’s confrontational, it’s confident, I don’t like using the word sexy because it’s so blah and been so over-used, but it’s quite full-on and sharp, and moulded out of my imagination.”

Made with fabrics such as silk, nylon and elastic, Emma’s clothes have been inspired by ‘80s style icons Grace Jones and Joan Collins, with the notion of “empowering” women at their core.

“Growing up as a kid in Cardiff I didn’t see women in a particularly positive light,” she says. “They were always housewives and not particularly well respected housewives. Women were bottom of the scale.

“I would watch programmes like Dynasty and James Bond, and I would see these women who were completely the opposite to any women I had ever known. I was really completely in awe of them, and would think, why can’t we all be like that, a bit tough.”

A fashion graduate of the Kensington and Chelsea College, Emma’s designs have already attracted the attention of some of the most influential fashion sites and blogs, with national press not far behind, while the reigning R’n’B queen Ciara recently sported one of her tailored sleeveless jackets for an appearance on MTV3. And with ‘80s tailoring so ‘on trend’ this season, it’s easy to see why the fashionistas have their eye on e.g., although Emma, stresses she did not set out to fit a criteria.

“I don’t believe in trends, I think as women we are more intelligent than that. We don’t need somebody to tell us, ‘this looks good, you should be wearing this now’. I just think that’s just a load of nonsense.”

Examining Emma’s mood wall, it’s clear she has no difficulty in finding her own style identity. Pages copied from 18th Century books, portraits of the American dancer Martha Graham, work by the great photographer Brassaï and examples of Pierre Cardin’s early collections are among the hotch potch mix of images on display.

Emma’s nieces also smile down, while their own art work adorns the adjacent wall. In fact, Emma, who admits to feeling a “sense of frustration” growing up in Wales, points out they are at the age when she first noticed fashion.

“The first time I was ever aware what I was wearing, my mum had made me this really sparkley dress, with a ra-ra skirt for a party, it was very cool. So I turned up late, fashionably late, and opened the door to this church hall and because the fabric was so sparkley all these kids ran up to me and were smoothing down my dress, and I remember thinking, ‘oh my gosh, this is amazing’. I was probably about six, quite little. Maybe that’s the defining moment when I thought, ‘right from this day forward I have to feel fabulous and make fabulous clothes’.”

e.g. is only available online at www.egfashion.co.uk Prices range from £90-£675. Details: 0845 956 9699