Last night saw the gala opening in London of the Victoria & Albert Museum's major new exhibition, The Golden Age of Couture, at a black-tie fashion event co-hosted by John Galliano, Dior's creative head in Paris.
The exhibition, which took three years to assemble, focuses on the period from 1947 to 1957, the decade of Christian Dior and his "new look". Earlier in the day, a memorial service for the late style icon, Isabella Blow, took place at the Guards Chapel in Chelsea.
Elsewhere, designer Nicole Farhi celebrated 25 years in business with a show at the Royal Opera House which, like many other collections this week, featured cotton maxi and shirt dresses - strong trends for next summer.
Hers were in fine cotton chambrays or African batik prints, with floppy sunhats adding a touch of hippie chic. Shorts, another widespread catwalk item, were tamed for city wear with neat tunics, occasionally cinched at the waist with waspie belts like the full and flouncy skirts.
Farhi has a firm Gallic hand when it comes to colour, and fabrics were fresh and original, such as porcelain embroidered cotton and laminated linen, the latter making for a stylish black raincoat.
Accentuating the Out of Africa feel of the show, with its kaftans and cropped jodhpurs, were antique tribal necklaces sourced by former Trinity College Dublin student Peter Adler of Pebble, who supplied the jewellery.
If Farhi looked afar, Paul Smith, the UK's most successful designer with an annual turnover of £11 million (€15.9 million), never looks farther for inspiration than his own back yard. His ironic, tongue-in-cheek takes on traditional British garb are signature features of his style.
This collection, with its preppy schoolboy blazers, long cable knits and half-mast trousers, was no exception. Everything had the languid, if studied, air of upper-class English style, with cheeky twists such as striped rugby shirts worn over ballgowns or lengthened into floorlength dresses.
Apart from unflatteringly tight shorts, tailoring had its usual effortless polish, and a green silk dress anchored with star brooches was sweet and pretty. Accessories such as owlish specs, braces and bowties were par for the course.