The guys at Benjamins would say so. Based on York Road in Kings Heath, Ben and Edward provide bespoke shirtmaking and tailoring services for clientele across the Midlands, not just the Kings Heath/Moseley clique.

Before continuing, I should offer full disclosure: Ben sold me a shirt so eye-poppingly esoteric, the sight of me wearing it causes involuntarily vomiting, harrowing flashbacks and/or uncontrollable laughter. I remain unfazed by the reaction: I found an item that I love, and could never have bought elsewhere in Birmingham.

Birmingham's men rarely have the opportunity to indulge their wilder sartorial notions, unless splashing out megabucks on predictable designer labels. This state of affairs has contributed to Benjamins' busy appointments book, a book packed with customers keen to customise professionally designed suits and shirts.

Significantly, recent months have seen more women call upon Benjamins' tailoring skills: indeed, Franka has joined Ben and Edward to cater specifically for this change in demand.

Why the change? Benjamins puts it down to the city's professional women reacting against the limited selection of smart women's clothes shops: after all, the Bullring replicates the offering found on most UK high streets, as do the concessions in House of Fraser, whilst the Mailbox is largely off-the-peg and ultra-expensive. These stores can't guarantee their size 12 suits will fit every size 12 woman.

Therefore, a young bespoke clothing operation, without the stuffy, fussy demeanour found in traditional tailors, provides a welcome option. Thankfully, Benjamins' success should lead to a reduction of incidents where high-powered barristers face-off in Birmingham Crown Court, but are fatally thrown off balance by the realisation their opposing counsel is wearing an identical pencil skirt from Jigsaw.

For a more informal retail fulfillment, Chatterbox fits the bill. The York Road boutique, with clothes and accessories designed by owner Collette Timothy, isn't afraid to be 'on trend', but doesn't kowtow to mass-market demands. The same road boasts Top Banana, a well-stocked vintage clothes shop and - very occasionally - a random pop-up vintage outlet, apparently situated near the bins behind the Hare and Hounds pub. Less than 10 minutes walk away on Poplar Road, the long established People can be found, a purveyor of quirky new collections of women's clothing and accessories.

From there, a 15 minute stroll into Moseley takes you to Encore. Encore is a secondhand shop of such discernment, it defies comparison with the plethora of South Birmingham charity shops that trade in the faded garments of the recently deceased. Encore has found a canny little niche in the market, and is the destination of choice for the city's less philanthropic Premier League footballers and WAGs to offload their Jimmy Choos in return for cold, hard cash.

Kings Heath's main high street also features usual suspects Dorothy Perkins, Burton and New Look, along with the less-heralded, cheap 'n uncheerful stores where clothes disintegrate 23 seconds after leaving the shop's premises.

Therefore, it's arguable that a large part of your fashion shopping needs can be fulfilled in a suburb 4 miles away from the city centre, but crucially with more eclecticism than found elsewhere in Birmingham.

This isn't to denigrate the city centre. Speak to shoppers from outside the region, and they say Birmingham has the ideal high street shopping experience: the Arcadia Group brands, M&S and department stores are all within a knickers throw from each other. Harvey Nichols heads the city's offering of expensive couture over at The Mailbox. Selfridges is both the city's architectural talking point, and the fashionista's starting point.

The city centre has its autonomous operators too. Disorder leads the way here, with the store embodying its independent status by manufacturing locally, producing unusual items for men and women, and capitalising on its influence from the world of graphic art. The Oasis Market continues to cater for its youthful customers with counter-culture creativity. The Great Western Arcade also offers some novelty for women looking for something special.

Is it enough though? By means of a comparison, Manchester has the Northern Quarter, an area devoted to independently minded boutiques and bars, with the Oasis Market-alike Afflecks Palace as a renowned centrepiece. Hockley, in Nottingham, is home to a coterie of boutique entrepreneurs. Leeds has the Corn Exchange and the Victoria Quarter. All three cities have these enclaves of creativity at the heart of the city. It's not that Birmingham doesn't have a independent retail quarter dedicated to creativity, as it has the Jewellery Quarter. But where's the clothing equivalent?

The Bullring's introduction could have revitalised our independent fashion offering, with high street mainstays vacating their previous city bases to gravitate towards the home of the brass bull. Unusually though, New Street and its surrounding streets didn't become a shoppers' paradise. Perhaps the innovators simply weren't there, though that seems unlikely when institutions such as the Birmingham Institute for Art and Design educate lots of fashion graduates. Maybe the problem lies more in prohibitive business rental rates - have they been too formidable for wannabe retailers, with their funds committed to stock, staff and student debt?

Put simply, since 2007, what have Birmingham residents seen more of in the city centre? New independent clothes retailers or new Tesco Expresses?

Style Birmingham may prove me wrong. This annual celebration of all things fashionable is the perfect platform to hail the best of Birmingham: it's sure to be a cheerleader for the national and international players who see our city as a strategic posting towards global domination. Hopefully, it will also push Birmingham as the ideal place to nurture new, creative retail and fashion stars, and raise awareness of hitherto undiscovered delights. It would definitely be disappointing if Style didn't acknowledge the talents already thriving outside the B1-B5 postal district.

Certainly, those talents in South Birmingham appear to have generated the type of creative community that other cities have within the heart of the city. And, on a personal level, it's nice to know I don't need to get on the No. 50 bus in order to look uniquely stylish/ridiculous* (*delete as applicable).