John Rocha made a big return to the London catwalk on Sunday night. He had taken a season out to restructure his business and concentrate on a huge fashion and home project for Debenhams, which was launched in-store a few weeks ago and has had Debenhams struggling to keep up with demand.
Rocha's spring collection, the occasion sponsored by Waterford Crystal, was the debut for two new collections, the Black and White labels. Black label is more handcrafted, but the two collections comfortably integrate with each other.
This season, Rocha was inspired by Donegal. "I spent four weeks there finishing the collection," he explained after the show. "I was inspired by the people, the countryside, the water" - he's a keen fisherman - "and the textiles. I completely immersed myself and you could say found myself. They are traditional people who love culture and textiles."
He shares their love of textiles, expressing it in the handcrafted details of his designs. There was a lot of hand-painted leather - beautiful bold brushstrokes on belts and skirts - which he has never done before, a lot of colour and plenty of his signature hand-prints.
Leather always features strongly in his collections, because he loves its raw, tactile quality. This season he used the skins frequently in their organic form - uncut and distressed - wrapping them around the body as a skirt pinned at the back, or slashing the sleeves of leather jackets. These he mixed with knits and tailoring.
Although he is a long-time Irish resident, Rocha still draws from his oriental heritage with delicate floral prints on blush-coloured crepe de chine. The combination gives a modern twist to the traditional crafted skills he obviously dearly loves.
Judging by the amount of real and fake Burberry checks that cropped up in the audience at the Burberry show yesterday morn ing they have a tough task ahead of them to protect that famous trademark from imitators. Ironically, the house check does not appear in their designer Prorsum collection.
There were A-line trench coats cinched with wide leather obis and lots of leather separates. Leather shirts looked quite cumbersome and heavy around the waist tucked as they were into wide, straight skirts with inset waistbands.
Shirts and skirts were intricately constructed with diamond quilting and inverted pleats and added to the overall over-worked feel of the collection.
One of the highlights of the week so far, however, was the latest collection from Markus Lupfer, a name we are going to hear a lot more about. The young London-based German designer produced a beautiful collection of Prince of Wales check silk dresses layered with matching Prince of Wales woven chiffon and draped with wide, low-slung belts. He has made his mark with laser-cut leather that had the finesse of chantilly lace and photo prints that were adapted this season into graphic images of a flock of black birds. Best though were the glamorous black and grey sequin striped dresses which were the epitome of understated classic elegance.