The third day of London Fashion Week epitomised everything that is great and everything that is gruelling about this most creative of fashion cities.
On the great side was the early morning show by young design team Sarah Swash and Toshio Yamanaka, for their label Swash.
The two designers, who met at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, were able to parade their wares for the first time under the sponsorship of cheap fashion chain store giant Topshop.
This is one of several initiatives afoot to foster the considerable pool of talent of emerging designers from many nations working in the city and to maintain London's reputation as the cauldron of fashion ideas.
Both the International Herald Tribune's Suzy Menkes and Sarah Mower, the must-read reviewer for American Vogue's website Style.com, went backstage afterwards to congratulate the pair; the high-fashion equivalent of a royal warrant.
The clothes were a bravura mix of brilliant '60s-inspired swirly floral prints and cheeky deconstructed tailoring, including the ultimate bumster jeans the back of the pants was cut into a low scoop, to hang down from a belt and reveal the buttocks beneath (clad in sheer undies).
There was more deconstructed clothing at Preen, in a quite brilliant showing, culminating in a knockout group of dresses with asymmetric layers of flamenco-style trumpet pleats that swung as the models sashayed.
It was a good job the collection was so tight, as everything else about the show was intensely irritating.
Delegates had to get themselves right across the city, from the main venue to the sixth floor of an empty office building in the financial district, where they then had to wait over an hour for the show to start. Then they had to get back again*.
*OMG!! The pain, the suffering, the horror! The great pack of wankers!!
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