Basso & Brooke fuk@lfw s/s 07

Basso & Brooke can always be counted on to create a spectacle, and it's not just on the catwalk that they deliver the goods. No detail is too small to consider and Tuesday night's event was no exception. From the beautiful Shepherd's Bush Empire venue and the cinema-style neon-lit show announcement above the theatre doors, to the gaggles of club kids whose kooky stylings attracted crowds of startled passers by, this was an event guaranteed to make a mark.

The show, when it came (two hours late, but who's counting) had a decadent 20s feel inspired by a nostalgia for the days when travel was an exotic experience pursued at leisure by rich heiresses (think Nancy Cunard) with little better to do than collect beautiful clothes, esoteric jewellery and a few lovers along the way. This was the grand tour Basso & Brooke-style and that meant a collision of influences from the orient, Jazz-age America and the jungles of darkest Africa.

The models, sporting cutely Marcel waved bobs and extravagantly painted faces, emerged onto a raised stage to cheers from the audience who hung over baroque balconies and crowded in the aisles. Flapper-girl dresses danced wildly under the weight of Swarovski crystal fringes on which were renderd comic book interpretations of exotic scenes. When some of the strands inevitably snapped (such was the vigour with which the models sashayed along the ramp) they sent beads bouncing into the audience and created the illusion that the girls were stomping through puddles.

Backstage, milliner extraordinaire Stephen Jones, was making hats seconds before they hit the stage. He obviously works well under pressure because the results were spectacular. Flowers, birds wings and joss sticks all played a part in the the Carmen Miranda on acid headpieces.

As always, there was a fury of prints which this year the designers described as 'global but pre-globalisation'. City names played off against leopard prints, national insignias jostled for space with alligator skins and jungle foliage and nowhere did they work better than on B&B's signature printed leggings and matching shoes.

As the show progressed, silhouettes became increasingly sculpted with pattern pieces cut into geometric forms that gathered and hung irregularly around the body. The bigger they got, the wilder they looked until the closing jackets all but engulfed the model's heads. The most striking of these came out entirely covered in enourmous copper discs, layered over eachother like the scales of a particularly fearsome fish.

Basso & Brooke's ss07 show opened to booming strains of The Urban All Stars' 'It began in Africa'. The adventure ended on a chilly night in west London. It had been a long journey, but definitely worth the wait.

Watch the video interview with Chris and Bruno here.

Words: Maia Adams
Photos: David Jones

www.bassoandbrooke.com