Designs on you

Femme fatal style by Lanvin. Photo / AP

The femme fatale

It's rare that Miuccia Prada gives us an accessible tag to read her collection by, but for this autumn/winter, the First Lady of Italian fashion did just that. If the femme fatale in question brings to mind the type of film noir heroine who would bring the average man to his knees, in this designer's hands at least, the story isn't quite so simple.

Well, it wouldn't be, would it? Prada has decreed that lace is the fabric of the season, for example, but it is not cut into the blousy, fussy silhouettes most associate with the fabric. Instead, the line is strict and covered up to the point of primness - the effect is peek-a-boo suggestive, as opposed to in-your-face sexy, and all the more marvellous for that. For more deadly females, see Balenciaga, where Simone Signoret in Les Diaboliques is referenced, Giambattista Valli, Lanvin ... the list goes on.

The neo-goth

Riccardo Tisci's determinedly Gothic collection - as seen most famously in the video for Madonna's latest single - is at the haute end of the scale where this particular dark and distressed look is concerned. The Givenchy designer is famous for just this sort of dark, skinny tailoring, whether it is in line with the prevailing mood or not. His Italian roots make him not averse to using religious iconography - and with rather more conviction than most.

More Camden Market in flavour - though with an attention to detail and craftsmanship that is impressive, particularly for a young, London-based designer - is Emma Cook's collection of latex and lace pieces, which will please the young, gifted and Gothic down to the ground. Luella Bartley's take on designer witchiness is as sweet, saucy and sassy as might be expected, while Giles Deacon's statuesque sirens might, not unreasonably, have walked straight out of an Edgar Allan Poe story.

There's more: Gareth Pugh (of course), Yohji Yamamoto (also of course), Alexander McQueen (yet another of course) and Marios Schwab.

The New Sloane

OK, yah? Yes, she's back and, strange to tell, the New Sloane is most high-profile at Dolce & Gabbana, not a label normally associated with such a smart and tweedy look. Argyle knits, tartans and Prince of Wales check loom large in this collection, where normally leopard print and cabbage roses might be, and our heroine even has a silk scarf tied neatly at her throat, just how the Princess Royal likes it. Over at the label's second line, D&G, the designers say that our own dear Queen was their inspiration - well, as played by the rather more obviously fashionable Helen Mirren in the movie, admittedly.

There are more Sloanes, meanwhile, at Ralph Lauren, whose slick, American take on British heritage fabrics - from hunting-jacket red wool to tartan - is a sight for sore eyes. Burberry, too, is a little on the posh side this time round (think princess-line coats and silk dresses), and so is Aquascutum, where an English rose will be spoiled for choice if it's a buttoned-up wool trenchcoat in an impractical colour that she's after.

The futuristic "it" girl

If the femme fatale is more than capable of holding her own where anything as ineffectual as, say, a man is concerned, then the super-charged intergalactic It girl that stalked the runway at Balenciaga is more alienating - and, indeed, plain alien - still. Her makeup is more than a little indebted to that of Klaus Kinski in Nosferatu, for a start. More importantly, her clothes are as strung out as they are glamorous - for example, silk-lined latex airbrushed with reptile skins, arcadian Japanese landscapes, and the gnarled branches of ancient trees.

More weirdness at Miu Miu, Miuccia Prada's more irreverent and playful line, where a sportswear theme led to jockey suits being given the mother of all makeovers, standing away from the body rather than following its line, and designed to be worn with a small but perfectly formed and not even remotely stable-friendly riding hat.

At Hussein Chalayan, meanwhile, the futuristic It girl appears to be referencing the Stone Age - beautiful draped dresses are printed with giant boulders, and raw crystals of similar proportions are the most otherworldly jewellery of the season. This, then, is the future as seen through the most extremely distant past imaginable.

The working girl

Red and black lace, split-crotch shorts, underwear as outerwear ... Ooh, la la, Comme des Garcons, a label not famed for displays of overt sexuality, appears to be referencing the sort of clothing that would be more readily associated with an Ann Summers party than anything more predictably avant-garde in flavour. In fact, this collection has more than a touch of Kensington Market in the 1970s to it, as well as more girlish fashion cliches - cut-out hearts, pink frills and polka dots all have their part to play.

Designer Rei Kawakubo says this is her homage to "bad taste", which, in her label's hands, becomes "good taste". Confused? Don't be. The end result is aggressively playful but in no way submissive. The woman who favours Comme des Garcons wears her suspenders over black opaque tights, and her shoes are resolutely flat. She's an atypically confrontational sex kitten, and rock-hard she looks for all that, too.

The Garconne

Trousers are back. And, some might say, not a minute too soon. Take those at Yves Saint Laurent - suffice to say that anyone labouring under the illusion that dressing like a man is an easy option might like to think again. The proportions, you see, are far from easy - high-waisted, cropped at the ankle and shaped, not wishing to sound disrespectful, a bit like a banana, these are the trouser silhouette of the season, don't you know, and suitably formidable they look, too.

For more androgynous good looks, both Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs are fine, dandy and impressively extreme, proving that the most fashionable way to wear tailoring is to magnify the proportions of either the top or bottom half of the body, and scale them down at the other half.

So, a big jacket is best worn with skinny trousers and vice-versa, as Stella McCartney also knows only too well.

Failing that, the androgynous look is always an option.

- INDEPENDENT