Dress(es) for success

London Fashion Week makes the dress next season's key piece

If you're a jeans-and-heels kinda girl, or prefer a piece of sharp tailoring to make a statement, London may not be the place to do your shopping next season. Certainly, if the designers who showed today at LFW have anything to do with it, autumn/winter 10 will be all about the dress.

From Antonio Berardi's super-slick, ultra-feminine silk cocktail numbers, with their just-seen chemises of lace, to Erdem's funkier print-patterend numbers, we were truly spoilt for choice today - with a different dress for every kind of woman.

At Marios Schwab, pinafore dresses were paired with collarless white shirts or cropped jackets, while for evening, the undershirts were lost and embellishment added in the form of encrusted crystal embellishment. At Christopher Kane, meanwhile, black lace and leather panels with brightly coloured floral motifs were the avant-garde take on the trend.

Onto Jaeger London (which, in truth, also had plenty of great trousers and separates on offer) where there were laser-cut velvet wrapdresses, textured jumper dresses and printed shirt dresses to choose from.

That doesn't mean the skirt is completely out of favour for the coming season. At Pringle of Scotland, skirts - or strictly speaking kilts - were the lynchpin of a gorgeus collection crafted from traditional Locharron kilt fabrics in dark mossy green and layered with sumptuous cable knits and shearling coats.

However, any way you look at it, we've suddenly got a very good excuse for a whole new wardrobe of shoes next season - if you're playing with hem-lengths, after all, you'll need a fabulous heel to finish off the outfit.