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Stella McCartney's understated luxury

Relax News
Monday 08 March 2010 01:00 GMT
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Stella McCartney emerged to take her bow after her ready-to-wear show on Monday looking svelte and elegant in a grey cashmere sweater and narrow pants as if fresh from the runway.

What better demonstration of the confident tailoring and understated luxury she has established as the label's identity.

The collection fitted in seamlessly with the location, under the gilt chandeliers and frescoed ceiling of the grand foyer of the historic Palais Garnier opera house.

Plain linear coats with no fastenings, just a notch cut out at waist level, shifts and tops in a wide black and camel stripe were favourites, along with outsize ribbed fishermen's jumpers, this season's "boyfriend" borrowing.

She also showed rainwear with detachable rubberised hoods, worn unzipped to reveal a double-breasted coat underneath, and casual tops, like a diamond quilted camel hoodie.

For evening, dresses fastened at the neck and waist but split open to reveal a bare back. Her single-shouldered slinky satin numbers in fuschia and fluorescent orange had floor-sweeping trains.

Mini skirts in giant shiny sequins or short frocks in chintzy embroidered lace in ochre and rust red were all veiled with a sheer layer of glazed organza.

In her programme, alongside the usual dedication to family, she remembered fellow British designer Alexander McQueen, who recently committed suicide.

"This one is also for Lee... You're missed."

McQueen's catwalk show should have been on Tuesday evening. His incomplete collection is being shown privately to a privileged few.

Marcel Marongiu at Guy Laroche opened his show with practical cape coats and roomy jackets in shaggy black and white mohair tweed.

Leather emerged as central to the look, whether for gloves with long dangling fringes, liquid chocolate tank tops or as the sleeves and yoke of a matt wool coat.

Asymmetric draping added a twist, like the ruched panel of half of a jersey dress or a wrap-around skirt with box pleats down one side.

The final sequence was of fortuny pleated maxi dresses with floor-sweeping trains, cinched into the waist with a wide belt seen throughout the collection.

For Leonard, French designer Veronique Leroy's collection had a harder edge than usual, with khaki, parkas and military belts and lots of shaggy fox fur and goatskin.

Occasionally the house's trademark prints almost disappeared, reduced to just the visible lining of a khaki dress on rolled up sleeves.

Harem trousers and jodhpurs, very on trend for next winter, turned up in buttery suede.

That said, there were still plenty of the signature kaftans and jumpsuits in printed silk jersey, which this season showcased washed-out pastel shades of wisteria, lilac and delphinium on backgrounds of brick red and cyclamen pink, often jumbling bands of animal and floral prints, like tiger stripes with stylised orchids.

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