Aggressive display out of step with laid-back trend

With London fashion week taking a back seat after events in New York, those designers taking part are having to prove they are worth even more than usual. Some are meeting the challenge, while others fail to live up to earlier promises.

Warren Noronha, 26, was one of the hot names at the last round of shows with his goddess gowns and striking use of prints. But yesterday, with his third collection and first appearance on the official schedule, he discarded his previous flattering silhouettes for an unforgiving display of cling and constriction, out of step with the laid-back trends emerging for spring/summer 2002.

Noronha’s outfits, all in dull tones of flesh and canvas, were angrily sexual and unnecessarily aggressive. Corsets were matched with the tightest of drainpipe trousers, and dresses that were overly voluminous in the sleeves were tight in all the wrong places. Many were left with unfinished hems, which looked sloppy instead of directional.

Noronha hit upon one trend, but he used it incorrectly. Many collections have used sheer fabrics to create an alluring and romantic flavour, but here the see-through panels make the outfits into a peep-show. Often the models were left to walk the catwalk with their breasts visible, a stunt that felt oddly dated.

Other designers have hit just the right note. Duo Mark Eley and Wakiko Kishimoto presented breezy, approachable tops, skirts and shirtdresses. The couple, who specialize in prints which have been used by Louis Vuitton and Alexander McQueen, are a rarity on the London schedule. Instead of focusing on intellectual and therefore unwearable concepts, they make clothes that you could imagine every one of your female friends wearing.

In warm, friendly shades of orange, blue and yellow, Eley Kishimoto showed sundresses with prints of clouds, cute jackets in pinstripe denim and skirts covered with childlike popping bubbles. The felt clothes are welcoming and nostalgic, of the same mood as Marc Jacobs who provided the best show of the season so far. Indeed, many of the outfits used bold piping, which featured so heavily in Jacobs’s collections.

All their clothes were made with a realistic cut – tops floated over the body, skirts or pedal pushers gave ample room for the hips. And by presenting their clothes in a salon setting, the method now being adopted by some leading US designers, they showed themselves to be in tune with the international fashion mood.