Spring 2005 will be flashy and floral and frocks are back. That was the message hammered home from London Fashion Week, which ended yesterday.
Prints - animal, vegetable and mineral - dominated the catwalks and hardly any show was without its requisite quota of silver and sequins used in ways that were often delicate and subtle rather than brash.
Prints were prominent in Paul Costelloe's colourful show opened by Miss World Rosanna Davison making an impressive modelling début on the catwalk, watched by her mother, Diane de Burgh. Costelloe had Audrey Hepburn in mind for this collection in which slim, ladylike sheath dresses were worn with gloves, pearls and wide-brimmed straw hats. "Eleven years after her death Hepburn is still an inspiration and ... a real influence on the look of the dresses for the season," said the designer.
Even though this was one of the few collections to feature suits (boxy tweed jackets, three-quarter length sleeves and A-line skirts), dresses were its strongest point, from 50s shapes in graphic black and white, prim little numbers with Peter Pan collars and pleats to flapper-style dropped waists in bright rose prints. The collection also marked the launch of his collection of bags and jewellery, the bags in fabrics that matched the clothes and chunky jewelled necklaces of freshwater pearls and quartz.
There were no bags, jewellery, or any other kind of unnecessary accessory at the Jean Muir show in which the quiet, well-mannered clothes spoke for themselves. Held in the company's new and first stand-alone boutique in Conduit Street, the collection featured beautiful fabrics like flecked cotton tweeds in nougat colours, punched suedes and fresh summer petal prints. The clothes are still made to the late Muir's exacting standards.
Tiny details were telling. The scalloped edge on a punched suede skirt, the delicate finish on a pink cashmere knit, the firm carve of a platinum leather jacket, the sequin trim on a boatneck blouse.
PPQ, the design partnership of Amy Molyneaux and Percy Parker, finished the week on a zanier note with a jaunty collection of prints and stripes in which slouchy models with high backcombed hair and hands in their pockets sported full skirts and slim vests, spatter print halternecks and baseball jackets with puff sleeves.