Anna Sui

The charm and humour that illuminate her work were in full effect, but there was also a rich seam of sultry slink.

Fashion is myth-making. You don’t need that coat or that bag, but the best in the business make you believe you do.

Her historic research threatens to tip her designs into academic self-indulgence, but the fact that it never happens is a testament to her lightness of touch and instinct for the timeless.

The designer has always been able to create alternative fashion universes that are utterly convincing in their exquisitely researched detail. But this latest effort was particularly so.

The wildly optimistic offering was everything we’ve come to expect from the designer, but she brought a new womanly worldliness to her work.