Eastern Europeans have been infiltrating the fashion landscape since the tip of the indie designer wave hit the fashion establishment in the late 90s. Crestfallen, some disappeared with the tide but more often than not, they endured the precarious first few years of business.

Survivors such as Marjan Pejoski (Macedonia), Roksanda Ilincic (Serbia),Tamara and Natasha Surguladz (Georgian founders of the label Tata-Naka)have kept business buoyant and profiles big in London since graduating from Central Saint Martins. In addition, Paris-based Macedonian Risto Bimbiloski has built a loyal cult following the world over.

These have been joined by more young designers who have been content to remain or return closer to their homes in eastern Europe for schooling, professional training and even to launch businesses.

With prosperity on the horizon, EU enlargement and a fascination with ways to express individuality, fashion is now an attractive career for many.

Local fashion platforms are springing up across eastern Europe. One very interesting model is the partnership between the Brno Trade Fair in the Czech Republic and Mittelmoda in north-east Italy, where an eastern European fashion award has been established. This year's winners included Russian Lada Arzumanova and Wojciech Czapla & Dagmara Czarnecka from Poland.

Maurizio Tripani, director of Mittelmoda, believes that the region is rich in resources and ideas. "Eastern Europe is becoming aware of its increasing importance and is getting self-confident with the fashion system, giving more and more importance to it. A lot of talent is hidden in those countries… and it could happen that in the future some important names come out from there."

Festivals and exhibitions aimed at promoting upcoming national industries are becoming more widespread too. One celebrating Slovenian fashion this June in Maribor was particularly successful in uncovering promising new names, some of which have already been placed at leading international showrooms and retailers.

Leonora Mark, a performance artist-turned-shoe designer launched her first capsule collection earlier this year, embracing old-fashioned femininity and combining it with an eccentric selection of materials such as Murano blown glass, antler and deer pelt. Her new season concentrates on sportive perforated leather and more glamorous plaiting.

Spring/summer 2005 was Uros Belantic's first international season at the label Oktober after two years targeting the domestic market. Perhaps - like many of his generation who were adolescents when communism fell and were then thrust head-first into a global culture - Belantic appears to be preoccupied by rather predictable topics such as military costume and folkloric detail. But there is a very sensitive touch to this new collection that broadens its appeal out globally to contemporary urban women looking for uniquely decorated tailoring.

A popular destination that moulds many hopefuls from the east seeking an avant-garde fashion curriculum is the University of Applied Arts Vienna. At Belantic's time there in the mid-90s, Helmut Lang led the class as head tutor; Vivienne Westwood took over; and now the baton has been taken up by Raf Simons. The school provides critical access to a western design perspective, while the city acts as a traditional crossroads between western and eastern Europe.

In recent years the school has produced several up-and-coming young designers, one of whom is Petar Petrov, a native of Sofia, Bulgaria. Petrov engineers elements of men's shirt and jacket classics into a single mutant neo-classical garment.

These pieces celebrate not only unusual design but, apparently, unusual beauty too. Rough, odd-looking guys don the cerebral equipment mixed with pieces from Petrov's colourful urban streetwear and sporty formal pieces.

The result is a total look suitable for many occasions. Petrov has chosen to base his brand's business operations in Sofia, in conjunction with his atelier in Vienna, plus a Paris showroom which has been open since his debut at the Paris men's prêt-a-porter last year.

This kind of "satellite" business structure allows globally minded independent designers from the east to maximise their cost-competitive edge by taking advantage of local production and overhead expenses.

In the Baltics, another kind of satellite model is surfacing, as designers there face stricter economic and market realities.

Urmas Väljaots organises Supernoova, an annual festival in Estonia that embraces students, aspiring designers and professionals alike in a celebration of fashion shows and contests.

However, national platforms here tend to function outside the realm of serious commerce.

"In Estonia the main problem is, of course, the lack of money - and also the lack of know-how. Having a market of 1.4m people gives just a couple of thousand potential clients who would have resources to consume fashion. So the only way is actually export", admits Väljaots.

Designers Alex Pogrebnojus & Vida Simanaviciute of the label A&V have a similar challenge in Lithuania and have begun to focus on Moscow.

Showing alongside the likes of Veronika Sambrskaya and Masha Sharoeva, examples of Russian designers with appeal and commercial potential internationally, A&V was part of a line-up this spring/summer season that included several from Moscow's old political sphere of influence - four designers from Belarus and one from the Ukraine.

"In Moscow things are only beginning to develop, which also gives certain advantages. Fashion and fashion people are treated with great enthusiasm and interest," say A&V.

Others to watch from the east European diaspora back in the west are Lidija Kolovrat, a Bosnian émigré in Portugal showing a mature conceptual signature collection at ModaLisboa and more recent arrivals to London, Siereks, a feisty trio of siblings Aga, Tomek and Pshemko determined to put Poland on the map.

What unites the many individuals in the many cultures that make up this region seems to be a outpouring of ideas.

"It is a fascinating mixture of naive or innocent fashion approaches with an undirected load of creativity," says Andreas Bergbaur, who sees many young eastern students in the fashion department in Vienna.

And what to expect when a few visionary minds from the east take the creative reins of the leading maisons and high street brands of the near future?

Early indicators point toward a range of moods but there will be obsessions with reinventing the past - so be prepared for ironic interpretations of Slavic folklore and some ethnic soul-searching. And, having been in a fashion vacuum for so long, we might expect futuristic themes to surface.