Valentine's Day in London yesterday saw the city stacked with flowers, restaurants booked out and even humble newsagents packed tight with bouquets, Deirdre McQuillan, Fashion Editor, in London
As if in tribute to the day, Jasper Conran lined the walls of the Royal Academy with red paper for his show, provided a piano recital by Melvyn Tan and exploded a shower of red confetti over the whole room when Erin O'Connor took her bow in a floor-length red chiffon dress.
As sure and as confident as the hand on the Bechstein, Conran's collection offered a classy mix of restrained tailoring and romantic ruffles in quietly opulent fabrics. Clients are a well-heeled brigade who can toss on white cashmere coats with insouciance or sport biker jackets precisely tailored in kid leather.
In a show minus trousers of any kind, the dress and the dress suit were the main players; simple wool sheaths or coat dresses had silk ruffs of Victorian severity or came in black metallic tweeds with black patent belts and low-slung heels. Night-time winners were sassy ribbon dresses in silk satin, ruffled "camellia" dresses and lavish opera coats. Colours like cocoa, ink, snuff and charcoal were subtle and sophisticated, like the collection.
Where Conran can handle cut and décor with assurance, Roksanda Illinicic's efforts at a couture look seemed marred by excessive detail. At her show in Quaglinos restaurant, clothes were dressed like frivolous hats. Curls of millinery fabric attached to dresses with voluminous sleeves took exaggeration too far and many items like oversize hooded metallic silk capes or thick fake fur skirts seemed aimed more at the camera than the woman in the street.
Preen, the duo of Justin Thorton and Thea Bregazzi, who have a following in Ireland at the Design Centre, grow more assured each season. Their style is a mixture of bulk and sheer, of body-conscious stretch dresses suggestive of Azzedine Alaia and bold coats with strong detail. On toned bodies, the tight dresses, constructed like corsetry and inset with horizontal and vertical bands of pleating looked very sexy, but more forgiving were the handsome camel coats belted on the derrière.