Marios Schwab

There are designers who will dress women above a UK size 10; Marios Schwab explores ways of displaying bodies that are pretty perfect already. Blush-pink, drainpipe jodhpurs in silk crepe de chine, for example, combine four of the most difficult elements in the entire fashion lexicon in a single item of clothing. But there's no denying they looked fabulously elegant on the model wearing them.

So let's accept Schwab won't be applying for a gig at M&S anytime soon and judge him simply as a dresser of the already divine. Sometimes he does it brilliantly, planting the seeds of ideas that bloom in other designers' collections later. Other times he stumbles into less fertile soil - as with last season's hobble dresses. But the cultivation process is always interesting.

Yesterday's show saw him slashing and stretching silk jersey as taut as a cat's cradle across the body, or draping suedes and leathers as if they were satin. Some were hits, such as the twisted khaki jersey catsuit and the scoop-backed suede dresses edged with copper trim, and the metallic shift dresses. Others, part swimsuit, part draped Grecian tunic, were more questionable: great on a fashion shoot, horrendous on a footballer's wife. As for the black jersey slasher dress worn over jewelled knickers, Liz Hurley did that aeons ago. And no, time hasn't healed the memory.

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Luella

Twenty years ago, when Vivienne Westwood was busy reinventing the crinoline, Katharine Hamnett was designing cool clothes for cool girls. Though Hamnett's clothes weren't startlingly original, their sexy, don't-give-a-damn ballsiness provided the era of “my other car's a Porsche” aspirations with a style vernacular. As Hamnett encapsulated 1980s London, Luella Bartley captures 2008ies London, with its celebrity-meets-Zara-Phillips-meets-Russian-glitz-meets-rural-tweediness.

First up, some of the cutest dresses of the season so far: tiered, floral, fitted and with bustier necklines superimposed on to grey cotton jersey vests. Next, slim cropped trousers in tweed or silk, some worn with cropped boxy jackets, a shape loosely based on old Tory wives, but made modern with scraps of chiffon ruffles protruding from shoulders and hems, and the elimination of several metres of fabric. Some came in brocades, others in more T-shirt fabric; several were accessorised with veiled headwear or, as you do, a fuchsia velvet riding hat.

You need to be about 18 to wear most of this, otherwise despite all the irony, you risk looking like Christine Hamilton. But there's always the bags, which were, like the jackets, microscopic: little jewels dangling from chunky pink or cream pearl straps slung across the body, messenger-style. Who says Luella can't dress the over-30s?

Temperley London

Alice Temperley must have known that returning to London Fashion Week would improve her media profile. Unfortunate show scheduling in New York last season meant that most fashion editors were more worried about missing the Malawi awareness bash hosted by Madonna and Gucci than they were about seeing Temperley's glossy maximalism.

But Temperley has learnt several lessons from her time in Manhattan. First, never to underestimate the importance of a celebrity front row. Mischa Barton, Rosamund Pike and Emilia Fox were a discernible improvement on the time Kermit the Frog got papped.

And the commercialism of New York has resulted in a more streamlined version of her boho aesthetic. There was much to admire in the nifty, close-cut jackets and neat blouses with trompe l'oeil details. Grecian-inspired, one-shouldered column dresses with their ruching and draping were great red-carpet material. Temperley kept up the slickness even when lace, studding, ruffles and silk jersey were all contained in the same outfit.

Amid the monochrome were jolts of electric blue and vibrant purple (shaping up to be the colour for next summer). And this winter's statement necklace makes way for the statement bracelet, which appeared in 3-D floral chains of vivid enamel and slivers of oversized, diamanté baguettes.

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