JEAN-CHARLES DE CASTELBAJAC SPRING 2010

This man defines ‘working a theme’ and there’s nothing subtle about his crack-head designs which I love. At first glance I thought, ok, pirate theme, whatever, but then he brings in Donald Duck, Prince and Elvis sequin dresses, grass skirt shoulder pads, Honolulu postcards, souvenir tea towel printed dresses, admiral rope, sailor stripes, tropical fish, coral…well you get the point. The tribal mask dresses were cool, they were worn by models of colour and it’s like you’ve got to be kidding me. If it all sounds a bit Pirates of Penzance (which it was) there were some subdued looks like the cute shirt dress with built in bra detail that was a good balance between prude and whore. It’s annoying when silly styling tricks (parrots?) detract from a collection rather than add. The square handbag with tassles was seriously cool, I want one now. Donald Duck sequin dress? I’ll take two.