Catwalk drenched in high glamour

New York fashion designers make clothes that either have no other purpose but to sell in huge volume, or are designed with drag queens in mind. Todd Oldham belongs to the latter group and his show on Thursday evening featured his favourite supermodels with huge overblown manes of matted hair dressed in old-fashioned glamour.

The collection was a mish-mash of tightly tailored suits with flared trousers, fake-fur trimming and jackets, sequinned tartan trousers and hats with dangling pompons. A dress was pinned with hundreds of sparkly paste brooches.

It is difficult to imagine quite who buys Todd Oldham, but he also designs for the highly successful German label Escada. Donald Trump's former wife, Ivana, who watched the show, is probably one of the few women who could get away with it.

After the show, fashion groupies tramped off in a snowstorm to a Lower East Side synagogue where the British designer Alexander McQueen was holding his show. McQueen is highly regarded in New York where his aggressive styling and masterful tailoring are a universe away from the bland, but highly saleable clothes produced by US designers. "I want to bring a little more spectacle to New York, a little more oomph," McQueen said.