London

Sinha-Stanic show

The first real excitement of the day came at the Gareth Pugh show. Models Lizzie Jagger, Erin O’Connor and Kate Moss’ ex, Another magazine director Jefferson Hack, sat next to each other in the front row looking on at models walking out in black Lurex head stockings. Just how were they breathing? Treading the catwalk for Sunderland-born Pugh is surely the most difficult job in the world – this time they also had to wear the vertiginous platforms.

So, what’s all the fuss about? Pugh’s spooky sharp-cut collection of PVC and leather, purely in black and white with Harlequin influences, are vibrant, weird as you can get and more than a little bit macabre. Wearable? No way. Commerical? Forget it. That's not what Pugh is about – he instead seems set on defining a bold new silhouette and spirit without selling out, just yet. Feature continues

Coming hot on the heels of Pugh, Emma Cook could not have played it more differently. In the first show of the week with an ‘oooh I like that’ reaction to every wearable outfit, Cook earned universal appreciation. Slinky playsuits, silky flippy dresses and the louchest of blouson shirts with rolled up sleeves could all have walked straight off the catwalk into any wardrobe. Brightening up an otherwise very muted palette of beiges and blacks was a range of prints in vibrant blues and greens, plus a sequin and sparkle-encrusted range of animal print boleros and shorts suits. These got the Vogue pack scribbling furiously, and showed how to do a bit of leopard (big trend for spring/summer 2007) without looking like a convict’s wife.

Other highlights including Sinha-Stanic’s neat reworkings of the biker jacket and chunky crystal-encrusted boleros, plus Bella Freud’s collection for Biba (relaunched for the first time in 20 years). Freud stayed true to the labels 1970s roots with a marshy colour-palette, swing-dresses, pussy-cat bow shirts and some subtle signature art-deco inspired prints.

The final show of the day, miles away from anywhere at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire, could have been a bit thin on the ground - if it wasn’t Basso and Brooke’s, that is. This one had longer queues than a post-office on dole day. The Italian duo responded in riotous colour. A carnival of prints, from lush tropicals to trompe l’oeil leopards and Daliesque enamels, were cut in geometric forms, in a typically Basso and Brooke display of extroverted glamour. The show-stopper? A golden, lavishly embellished, intricately cut mini flapper dress with an extraordinary, one-shouldered and heavily gold-encrusted Matador’s cape. Being Basso and Brooke, the dress was accessorised with an Up-Do spiked with lit incense sticks. We’re not sure if that’s a look we can expect the high street to rip off any time soon...