London Fashion Week: Paul Smith is the UK's most successful designer, a bastion of the establishment, who always manages to send up very adroitly the very traditions from which he draws.
At London Fashion Week yesterday, one could have called the collection he showed in the city's Royal Horticultural Hall "Sailors and the City" for its clever parody of conservative nautical wear, matelot knits and heraldic print silk scarves. He played around with the blazer, the pea coat, and the sou'wester and gave them a modern Smith makeover that was both witty and wearable. Flag prints fluttered on sweaters, navy pinafores were worn with tomato-coloured tights and even the models' hair was roped into plaits around their heads.
There were mocking jabs at Coco Chanel, a witty reminder of the woman who first made the style popular. Navy tweed dresses were anchored with the familiar gilt and ribbon handbag chains which reappeared again as decorations on navy chiffon dresses.
Pinstriped drainpipes came with streamlined jackets tight as corsets. Even tea dresses and empire-line baby- doll numbers had chain and anchor motifs, a print repeated on fine cord coats. Salute the man who can revamp sartorial cliches.
Jessica Ogden, a designer who once worked for Oxfam, looked to the past, and a child's world of dressing up, for her show held in the Conway Hall in Red Lion Square. A stage set like a bedroom showed a girl in pyjamas rifling through her wardrobe for something to wear. The show that ran simultaneously was quiet and rather fey in spirit with an emphasis on knitting, crochet, quilting and smocking and it harked back to more innocent times. Corduroy pinafores and dungarees were worn with Peter Pan collars, pleated skirts with Argyll vests and Viyella shirts. Smock dresses, tiered skirts and quilted boleros gave the feeling of childlike clothes for grown up girls though the lavender tights and wedge heels added a zanier touch.
High street chains Debenhams, Marks & Spencer and more recently Top Shop have poached many British talents very successfully to upgrade their clothes and Betty Jackson was one of the first. She has now, however, severed her long connection with Marks & Spencer and its Autograph range to concentrate on her own second line. Yesterday afternoon, she kept her own flag flying displaying in her main collection just why she still continues to design so skilfully for the modern woman. There was a coat for everybody - be it in blonde leather, pea green wool or tented tweed. Sleeves were short on flattering silk shirts or three-quarter length on jackets. Trousers were slouchy or pedal pushers - take your pick. Fake fur gilets or neckties were familiar accessories.
Perhaps the most alluring collection yesterday, however, was that of Alice Temperly, a textile designer known for sexy, glamorous and very feminine clothes. Using the stuff of fancy lingerie like black lace, rose silk, and jet beading, she evoked the Paris demi-monde of the l900s but with a fresh twist. Sixteen-year-old model Millie Cole, now on the international circuit, set the tone in a bustle chiffon skirt, black tights, black high heels and a tight black jacket edged with pink satin ribbon. This vie en rose with glittering sequined skirts, fluttering rose silk dresses and delicate capes was both beautiful and flirtatious, but aimed mostly at the night.