Alice Palmer

Alice Palmer’s wittily titled show ‘What Happens in Vegas…’ spilled out onto the runway to pumping, discordant beats straight from the 1980s. With inspiration coming from Sin City’s ritzy hotels, Palmer took knitwear into previously unchartered territory and made it glam, slick, heck, even sexy.  A comprehensive collection of evening dresses, split up to here and down to there, with cut-away holes were thrown into the mix.  Super-fine knits in fuschia, blue and muted taupe whispered around bodies and folded into luxurious drapes.  The mood was rich, heavy on luxury, and steeped in feminine allure.

Heavily structured, padded frills gave fashionable gravitas to ultra-girly pieces, accentuating shoulders and exaggerating hips to the point of charicature, while cowl-backed and asymmetric dresses drew the eye to the exposed skin underneath.  Mountainscape hems rose and fell to brush legs as the models paused to twirl one last time.  A flash of boob here and there only served to reinforce the concept behind the show and, as we filtered out to Russian folk music, there was palpable sartorial excitement in the air.  Emma Hopkinson

Images: David Coleman