The new look is prim, urban and classy. There's a touch of vintage, accents of colour, and fur is either friend or faux. In tweeds and satins, 1940s glamour makes a strong impact. Deirdre McQuillan takes some key trends from catwalk to sidewalk.
FUR
Like it or not, fur has made a forceful comeback. Galliano at Dior showed it at its most extreme and dramatic in playful experiments with volume and colour; on the street it takes more demure forms in belted sheepskin waistcoats, in trimmings (John Rocha used fake mink on trench coats) and capelets.
CAPES
The cape featured in nearly every collection in every kind of texture, from fur to fake, from brocade and velvet to chunky knits and leathers. Call it a shrug, a capelet, a stole or a wrap, the cape is the alternative to a jacket.
VINTAGE
The craze for nostalgia continues. Marc Jacobs's neat belted cardigans and flared skirts are easy to copy (Oasis and Avoca have some great knitwear), while elsewhere the taste for classic is expressed in shoes and hairstyles (loose waves and conker shades), animal brooches and chiffon goddess gowns and even underwear.
EQUESTRIAN
Saddle up for country. A dressage look with a whiff of English country houses featured in both Jasper Conran's collection in London and at Hermes in Paris, where Jean Paul Gaultier now flashes the whip. Taut, tight-fitting trousers, cutaway suits and flared hacking jackets are safe and sexy and always cut a dash, but don't bolt into jodhpurs yet. Marithe & François Girbaud (Diffusion, Clontarf) have made this an easy-to-wear look, with fabrics such as denim, tartan and leather.
TWEEDS
These are at their most convincing at Chanel and Jean Muir. Everyone from Mango and Marks & Spencer to Prada and Donna Karan are on the beat; Zara is already selling sparkle tweed coats.
RED
Red is the colour of China and everybody is talking about China these days: Tom Ford's last show for YSL was bathed in red light and chinoiserie. His red brocades and pagoda-sleeved jackets were a tour de force.
SATIN
The perfect fabric for the limelight, slipper satin appeared not just in lingerie dresses, but in trouser suits (Dolce & Gabbana) and even trench coats (Helmut Lang).