Monsoon

High Street fashion label Monsoon was founded in 1973 by Peter Simon after he started selling shaggy woollen coats and hand block printed clothes from Rajasthan on the Portobello Road in London. The original focus was always clothes with an ethnic origin from faraway places, including unusual dresses from Afghanistan and other countries. Now it is one of the most popular affordable clothes chains. Its firs fragrance Monsoon was launched in 2008 and in 2010 came Elation. It has over 600 stores in over 50 countries, opening the most recent in the USA in 2010. It plans to have 50 stores in China in the next few years.