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Show Report

HE told us it was influenced by his favourite things about summer, starting with holidays on super yachts (“other people’s, not my own,” he admitted), for what Julien Macdonald sees as his perfect customer.

“They’re so glossy and modern – it’s really an ideal dream to own one isn’t it,” he said. It translated into a show of typically hardcore clothes accented with panels of leather mesh and metallic belts – the models had literally dressed themselves in elements of the yachts, rolling in their associated wealth and even smearing red or white emulsion paint over their heads to slick their hair back.

And where were they going in their vast, moneyed vessels? “I wanted to take them on a bit of a tour of Asia,” explained Macdonald. “I’ve never been to China or Japan but I’d love to go – it’s that part of the world in which the luxury market is really flourishing at the moment, I think every designer brand wants to expand over there.”

So mixed into the modern money statements – whipped around the body in laser cut leathers, bonded jersey and new plasticised wool for a “squiggle knit” that proved Macdonald’s determination to use technical innovation to bring couture techniques on to his catwalk – were Chinese dragons embroidered onto nude chiffon dresses in a million silvery or black beads. One dress, the designer told us beforehand, had taken 60 men to work on it – such was the intricacy of the embroidery.

Another Macdonald obsession – tattoos (“though I’d never have one myself, I don’t have the body for it!”) – was catered to via a fresh blue and white block print for trousers and matching jackets that had a New Romantic feel, while repeated in softer silk handkerchief dresses they brought in a welcome femininity.

The highlight was easily the dresses, embellished with scales of blue and iridescent sequins, expertly embroidered black lace and beading and tiny yellow flowers. With Alesha Dixon, Eliza Doolittle and – a very late – Bianca Jagger in the front row, Macdonald always goes for high voltage glamour. Think Porsche sunglasses and heels that were metallic, pointed and positively dangerous – but he does well to allow pure skill and fabulous romance to show through too.

With thanks to Mercedes Benz.

SEE THE JULIEN MACDONALD CATWALK ARCHIVE

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