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Last week's London collections were nothing if not diverse - from the young designer Robert Cary-Williams's second collection, a low- budget, raw-edged affair held in a tiny venue, to Burberrys' first appearance on the London catwalk - a super-slick, super- expensive show more reminiscent of the Milan runways than anything normally associated with our fashion capital.
The clothes themselves were equally disparate. Cary-Williams's designs are ripped, torn and tattered, romantic but deconstructed, and aimed at a fashion- literate and probably very small clientele. But Burberrys', now designed by Roberto Menichetti from the Jil Sander stable, was polished from start to finish, if in a highly derivative manner. Blink and you might have missed the odd flash of Burberrys check. Without it, this was, well, Jil Sander to tell the truth, from the luxury hi-tech fabrics to the three-buttoned jackets pulled very-slightly-too-tightly across the top of the chest. What the Burberrys customer is likely to make of it remains to be seen.
The two most accomplished shows of the week represented very different aesthetics, courtesy of Hussein Chalayan (hot tip for this year's British Designer of the Year) and Alexander McQueen.
For his show, Chalayan returned to his preoccupation with flight. The first outfit out, in gleaming white metal, had a red, flashing light at its hem and a panel that dropped down like the wings...