London in successful Fashion Week shock! Prince at Matthew Williamson, Nicole Kidman at Antoni & Alison (only on film, but it was a clip that she’d made exclusively for the duo, wearing their clothes) and Courtney Love et al at the V&A helped to foster this eerily upbeat mood. But the clothes were often original, fresh and (wait for it) well made. The shows were mainly well organised and most designers seemed to take on board the recommended new initiatives on models. But obviously it takes some lows to make things go with a sizzle. Here’s the mix.

TRENDS ON THE CATWALK

Dresses: the catwalks were packed with infinite variety, from Topshop Unique’s twisted, looped and draped minis and Jonathan Saunders’s sophisticated block colour dresses in white, camel and icy blue to Betty Jackson’s strapless African print ones worn over knitted tanks and Aquascutum’s tailored shifts.

Layers: not peasant but pristine, accordian-pleated at Luella; flat organza sheets at Jonathan Saunders and Richard Nicoll.

Glamour: is it thanks to the mega-rich Russians? Chinese? Indians? WAGs? British designers, once known for wrapping a bin bag around a few staples and calling it a day – or rather an evening dress – now do polished glamour with the best of them. Roksanda Ilincic’s gorgeous liquid silk columns and full skirts, with or without quirky big sleeves, and Giles’s ultra-tailored corset dresses with seamed bustiers and appliquéd rubber foliage (much more beautiful than they sound; the models looked as if they were wading through autumn leaves) were among the standouts.

Ruffles: whether they’re big, as in Christopher Kane’s subtly sexy dresses, or neat and confined to a dress shirt at Duro Olowu or Margaret Howell, they’re pressed rather than peasant.

Tye-dye: super-sophisticated effects, often used as neat borders (as at Matthew Williamson). They don’t teach you how to do that on Blue Peter.

Dirndl skirts: full and to the knee at Nathan Jenden (after last season’s so-so performance, Diane von Furstenberg’s former design assistant came good with this collection of power-boho skirts and ruffled shirts in saffron and fuchsia); below the knee at Betty Jackson, calf-length at Nicole Farhi.

Patterns: abstract florals, blurry shadows, Bambis and Kate Mosses (at Giles) and out-of-tribal-Africa prints.

Colours: grey, shell pink (has the advantage of looking grey in some lights); café au lait, orange, sour yellow, emerald green.

Exposed zips: the kind of anoraky detail you’d find in Dressmaker’s Monthly, but don’t underestimate the power of a zip to make a trad cocktail dress look cool. They were one of the stars in Marios Schwab’s elegantly louche collection, even though some of them served no discernible purpose other than to look erotic against naked skin (come to think of it, that is a discernible purpose). Luella’s zips meandered across her bags just for fun. Mulberry used them to turn its Poppy bag into the grown-up woman’s Transformer. Zip it up and you’ve got a neat, ladylike bag; unzip it and you’ve got a slouchy sack.

The shoe as statement about modern disclocation: the half-shoe, half-ribbon at Marios Schwab; the half-high heel, half-sneaker at Jonathan Saunders; the half-flattie, half-platform at Betty Jackson, the half-stiletto, half-Dr Martens at Luella.

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