"I just love finding new places to wear diamonds," said Marilyn Monroe in Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend. Well, Julien MacDonald demonstrated somewhere new on Monday night when he sent out the latest star model, Liberty Ross, with diamonds on her eyelashes, her toes and an enormous spiky diamond shoulder strap on her dress which had spent the days leading up to London Fashion Week safely stashed away in De Beers' safe.
Julien MacDonald, who has created the skimpy frocks that get stars noticed at film premieres - namely Joely Richardson, Posh Spice and Kylie Minogue - was given the opportunity to make the dress of his dreams.
When you tell someone like MacDonald that money is no object, you can be sure that the designer who is fashioning himself as Britain's answer to Versace will not be restrained in accepting the offer. What graced the catwalk that night in a collection buzzing with showbiz hype was a sparkling black asymmetric dress with, perched on one shoulder, 100 carats worth of diamonds, valued at a million dollars.
It somewhat overshadowed the £250,000 diamond dress shown the day before by Maria Grachvogel, which will be auctioned in aid of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund. If that is rather beyond one's pay packet then the sparkling eyelashes by Ice Blue are a little more affordable at £750 a pair, while Eyelure's little sparkling fakes will only set you back £9.99.
MacDonald's show buzzed with Las Vegas razzmatazz: strobe lights, disco glitter and a pop star audience, including Baby Spice and Westlife. The Kidd family were in full voice when Jodie came down the catwalk in a pink geometric print dress sparkling with Swarovski crystals and holding her pet Jack Russell, Inka. She was followed by a bevy of models wearing even more abbreviated dresses in vibrant prints strewn with a ton of crystal.
Collections from Paul Smith and Jasper Conran were positively demure, and frankly more wearable, in comparison. Conran showed on the fourth day of the spring collections a cool, fresh, pretty series of little fitted leather jackets in black, white and iceblue with bandeau tops, palazzos and bikinis. Most appealing were the sweet, striped cashmere knits with long A-line skirts in blush and shell pink silk and organdie.
Paul Smith chose a spectacular setting in the courtyard of the recently restored Somerset House, but couldn't control the elements as the rain clattered down on the canopy over the catwalk. The audience had to suspend reality and imagine they were on some tropical beach as his 1950s colonial-inspired beachwear sashayed past.
Bright tropical scarf prints on beach hats, turbans, bandeau bikinis, sarongs, djellabahs and tunics were reminiscent of French print designer Leonard, who had a huge colonial following in the Far East from the 1950s to 70s - a world away from MacDonald's flashy showgirl costumes.