BRITAIN: London Fashion Week began on Saturday in South Kensington. Many of the most famous British designers - Alexander McQueen, Hussein Chalayan, Mathew Williamson - have uprooted and now show in other fashion capitals, but London's reputation as a breeding ground for creativity continues to flourish.
While Paris has a distinctive character and does fashion in a traditional haute couture inspired way, and Milan and New York are about marketing and selling the product, London remains eclectic. So, alongside rigorously avant garde designers are those who offer wearable clothes with a wide appeal.
One of these is Irish designer Paul Costelloe, who opened the five-day event. But his show was somewhat confusing. Too often, it seemed he was adding trends, such as short dresses with cut-out flesh exposing sections, without any real feeling or conviction. A traditional camel-coloured jacket was fine in itself but when teamed with a very short shrunken sequined puffball skirt, looked out of place.
That said, there were some good individual pieces: knit wrap/ponchos in bright red or oranges had oversize buttons, a clever idea worn again with very short skirts; fisherman knit off-the-shoulder cardigans; cropped trousers and grey pleated shirts. Costelloe's staples - tailored coats (in colours such as green, orange, red) and trouser-suits (double-breasted grey, beige and black) looked best.
Newcomer Joe Casely Hayford's collection employed some of the worst clichés in experimental fashion. Altering traditional clothing is all very well but a jacket turned inside out from the waist downwards was a poor version of something a Japanese designer might have done 10 years ago.
A bank of coloured lights flashed at the end of Jenny Packham's catwalk, as 1980s disco music greeted the entrance of model Erin O'Connor in an oversize white fluffy snow hat complete with dangling bobbles. Packham is known for her beaded, sparkling evening wear and the most striking dresses where those in which she used gold and silver beading together without a gaudy result, such as a column dress with beaded strands hanging across an open back.
Scott Henshall's women aren't going to step out before dusk, not in the gothic, body-conscious evening wear he showed.