Richard Lewis's autumn collection hints at the 1930s: bias cutting, a flutter in the hemlines, plain tops edged in stitching and the use of filigree embroidered matt jersey, crushed silk, and textured chenille gives these classics great appeal.
They are extraordinarily feminine. Colours, apart from black, are all from the burgundy, cyclamen, purple group and are entirely right for the style the designer has created.
Shown in the Masons' Hall, in Molesworth Street, these womanly clothes stood out boldly in this masculine hideaway, as indeed they would anywhere.
Suits, cut small, in colourful striped chenille, showed how burgundy, cyclamen and amber can work together (£700). Alternatively a chenille jacket can be put with plain trousers in a soft, stretch-knit fabric, when the bias cut skirt needs a rest. There is a loose, unlined coat in this group, a feature being the ruched cuffs.
Then came the matt jersey, embroidered with black filigree black-on-black, or black-on-sage-green, that has the most sensuous look. Again it is trousers, flirty skirts with ripple hems and various T-shirts (quite amazing what can be done with that little essential garment) often held together by wide cummerbunds.
The true classics are in black matt jersey, used with velvet, and here are all the old favourites: slip dresses, smoking jackets, cardigans, and throws, each one beautifully shaped and with some subtle detail. Even the throw is more like a kimono.
The high-necked Nehru jacket, the long theatre coat and the sarong skirt, coming in all lengths, are all here looking marvellous. But texture enlivens each piece.
Long dinner dresses, with keyhole necklines, and wide, bell sleeves, and belts or bags, decorated with sunflowers or calamari tentacled splodges, are as chic as you can get. Such numbers are around £700, but day dresses are £520 and trousers are from £240.
This is investment dressing, for these subtle and romantic clothes never date. They are too good for that.
Richard Lewis is the master of simplicity: how deceptive that is, for these clothes are as artful as the most complicated - and more beautiful.