The Story So Far

Looks from (top row) John Rocha's S/S 08 catwalk show at the BFC tent and (bottom row) Basso & Brooke's S/S 08 catwalk show at the Louise T Blouin Institute, at London Fashion Week.

Yesterday's shows included the long-established John Rocha, print specialists Basso & Brooke, and today's uber-boring Nicole Farhi.

What's black and white and bored all over? John Rocha's S/S 2008 show. In contrast to my trumpeting in the last post of the return of colour, Rocha showed a structurally dull collection barely enlivened with the few dashes of colour on show. The predominant palette of black, grey, linen and cream might have worked on outlandish or desirable pieces, but a basic black cotton shift is only really desirable when it's on sale at H&M for a tenner. The one high point came in the form of a dark turquoise liquid leather coat (shown above), which whilst totally covetable wasn't gasp-out-loud waiting-list-worthy.

Basso & Brooke more than made up for the disappointments earlier in the day, despite forcing us to trek from sunny South Kensington out to an industrial estate in the middle of nowhere (Shepherd's Bush). A sunny weekend had given way to freezing cold weather and the crowd outside the show was furious to be kept waiting in the street when they could have been safe in the confines of the BFC tent, but those of us lucky enough to score front row seats (i.e., me) were ushered into the inner sanctum straight away to pounce on our goodie bags. Thanks to L'Oreal I'm now the proud owner of 2 eyeshadows, 2 lipsticks, the entire De-maq Expert range, Elnett hairspray, spray-on fake tan and some sort of weirdo collagen wrinkle filler. Sometimes dashing across London on three different buses in four inch heels is totally worth it...

The goodies put everyone in the mood to be nice about the collection, but bribery was unnecessary: it was stellar. Highly structured cocktail dresses with boning and stiffened fabrics were overlaid with waves of chiffon, folded to flatter, all in Basso & Brooke's signature prints. Floor-length competed with cocktail competed with sporty competed with body-con: the bubble hem seen at the previous day's Eley Kishimoto show popped up again, and the sporty-style hooded and drawstringed styles were again in evidence.

Sadly Nicole Farhi's show (which finished barely an hour ago -- if this computer were a press this entry would be hot off it) could be summed up in far fewer words: "blah". Ply us with champagne and canapes beforehand all you like Farhi, nothing will get me drunk enough to think that cheap high street-style gap-year-in-India cotton prints on elasticated dresses are a good idea. Photos not yet up but after tomorrow's shows I may post a couple.