Bohemian Rhapsody, Out of Africa, Summer of Love and Tribal. These are just some of the names being used for the ethnic, folkloric, hippy aesthetic that has always been the speciality of East. Despite a devoted following, the business is yet to be a “major international fashion brand”. This was the future envisaged two years ago when Yasmin Yusuf, a former Marks & Spencer creative director, joined as chief executive, but quit seven months later. A troubled period followed.

As a result of these problems, East is described as a “turnaround transaction” by Risk Capital Partners, the personal vehicle of Luke Johnson, chairman of Channel 4 and one of the chain's retail and financial investors. Risk Capital describes East's “issues” as “mainly self-inflicted”, but adds that it is now “back on the growth path”.

Other Risk Capital holdings include GRA, a group that owns greyhound racing stadia - probably not the haunt of many of East's fortysomething and fiftysomething clientèle, a group more lady than ladette. But Risk Capital also has stakes in the Patisserie Valerie restaurants and in the Borders bookshops where Mrs East, as the chain calls her, would feel more at home.

The forecast that ethnic will be one of the trends of spring/summer 2008 could help East - which is now led by Andrew Webb, a former Carphone Warehouse director, to move on from its “issues”. The trend represents the opportunity to lure in customers who balk at batik and find East insufficiently directional.

On Monday morning last week in the Covent Garden area, most women out shopping were still wearing black, but there was a sign of things to come in the window of Nicole Farhi, where someone was draping an Indian embroidered fabric around a piece of driftwood. A creative squad in the next-door branch of East, one of its 53 stores - was painstakingly displaying garments in vibrant shades. This produced an effect as cheering as the greeting from the staff when I entered the store.

The assault on the senses broke down some of my resistance to East style: I liked a blue and black graphic print skirt (£79), a pistachio coat with broderie anglaise edging (£79), a kaftan-type top in blue and grey (£59) and a short navy trench (£159).

The peasant look, never my favourite, was more evoked than literally reproduced except in the case of a denim dress (£79), which looked like the uniform of a Soviet collective farm. By contrast, a long silk-mix cardigan (black, beige, blue, £69) would have elicited compliments in the offices of a Noughties service sector business. But the ideal acknowledgement that boho could once more be having a moment was a chunky necklace in lapis lazuli, mother of pearl and onyx (£45) - multiculturalism at its best.