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HE 1960S REVIVAL gripping high fashion now dominated London Fashion Week. But despite Zandra Rhodes returning to the London runway and a major retrospective of Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell's work opening at the Victoria & Albert in July, the ever-contradictory London pack ignored Swinging London and turned instead to French ’60s futurists Paco Rabanne, André Courrèges and Pierre Cardin.
   Few designers failed to read the black poloneck over white A-line mini dress moment or accessorize with black or white patent leather Barbarella belt, cuffs and knee boots. Roland Mouret hung orange trapeze-cut mini dresses from black patent leather torques and breastplates while Emma Cook voted for an op-art palette accessorized with black knitted skullcaps edged with patent leather.
   Markus Lupfer's ’60s riff turned to Aspen for inspiration. Black zip-front cat suits shown with knee-length black leather boots were swathed with loose-knitted scarves incorporating Saga fox. Lupfer reinvented Paco Rabanne's plastic disc 'chain mail' mini-dresses (illustrated previous page) with strips of mink linked by golden chains. Leopard-print A line miniskirts completed a slick, Audrey-Hepburn-in-Aspen story.
   Sophia Kokosalaki's black polonecks under long-sleeved white mini dresses looked sexy and strong with cool lavender tights and white pumps. Holographic leggings were just enough to give her space race tailoring edge. The Greek designer's keyhole-cut-out little black dresses and shaping of leather miniskirts with intricate pin tucks were as proficient as Azzedine Alaïa’s work in his prime.
   Julie Verhoeven, designer-in-residence at Gibo, shone when she allowed her playful, whimsical eye for colour come through with opaque red or white tights worn with matching pumps. But her prints this season weren't as strong as old master Zandra Rhodes, whose crazy Kandinsky motifs on sheer chiffon caftans looked cool, or as Paul Smith who showed a Princess-cut coat in a patchwork of loud primaries. Clements Ribeiro, back this season after two seasons in Paris, must have been taking notes from their Cacharel collaborator Celia Birtwell. Their 'Amoeba' prints echoed Ossie Clark and Mary Quant.
   Jasper Conran is a national treasure who has survived two decades in a fashion capital that eats its young. Conran's triumphant show opened with a black shearling coat buckled with white horizontal leather straps. He proceeded to dazzle with black cashmere polo necks and pencil skirts piped with white, wispy georgette wrap tops twinned with ostrich feather skirts and sugar pink silk evening separates.

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The ever-contradictory pack ignored Swinging London and turned instead to French ’60s futurists