If London fashion designers have their way, to judge from some of yesterday's catwalk shows, the modern woman in spring will be awash in soft colours and flower prints with spangles and sequins polishing up her evening - or in some cases - her day wear.
John Rocha, who showed in the ballroom of Claridges Hotel last night to huge applause, emphasised the contemporary taste for decoration and opulent embellishment and although there were occasional touches of landscape shades such as muddy browns and greens, he remained resolutely true to his signature love of black, embellishing it with silver and patchwork pieces.
The collection had a curious offhand elegance in everything from sparkling brocade waistcoats and shorts to long black taffeta and tulle dresses topped with abstract patchwork capes. White summer skirts glittered with silver appliquéd flowers and long black cotton skirts had pocket belts slung casually over the hips. Pockets in Prince of Wales check jackets or on trousers were often worn inside out imparting a slouchy, devil- may-care touch. Black bows adorned the shoes, so high models seemed to tiptoe along the catwalk. "I am trying to make clothes look cool and funky in a laid-back way," said Rocha backstage.
"The collection is not so much about colour, but about texture and about mixing shiny with matte. At this stage in my career, I am very contented in what I do."
Similar assurance always shows in Paul Smith's breathtakingly confident collections. Britain's most successful designer is notable for his continuously witty and irreverent takes on traditional English tailoring.
In the Royal Horticultural Hall, a lawn of imitation grass provided a fitting catwalk for a show in which flower prints were stripped of their sweetness into edgy streetwear and strappy gold platforms were worn with ladylike eau-de-nil trenchcoats. Traditional cabled vests got a shiny lurex makeover and were teamed with pleated pink skirts, knee-high socks and cocky printed trilbys. The strong points of this colourful show were the dresses, flirty and girlish with little collars and short sleeves in dark prints or patterned silks, a relief from slashed fronts, spaghetti straps and backless numbers so much in evidence in many other shows.
Dresses also played a starring role in both Nicole Farhi's and Alice Temperley's collections in chiffon and silk, light and dreamy as summer breezes. Farhi's featherweight chiffon tops and silk wraps offered an appealing contrast to her more mundane, tautly cut, shot linen and blue cotton cropped trouser suits. Temperley's utterly girlish spirit expressed itself in cascades of delicate prints and seductive dresses finely embroidered with beads, sequins and mirror glass, the stuff of fantasy and romance.
Black lace skirts braided with gold sequins and long coral chiffon evening dresses coated in silver cobwebs seemed destined for the limelight.