English Roses

The international fashion series for spring-summer 2005 is now well underway. Hilary Alexander and Maggie Alderson report from its midpoint in London.

You could be forgiven for thinking you were at the Chelsea Flower Show instead of London Fashion Week.

Daffodils, roses, delphiniums and exotic orchids were in full bloom on the catwalk as full-strength "flower power" seized the collective imagination.

Sir Paul Smith even brought in a tonne of fresh turf laid as a catwalk in the most appropriate of locations, the Royal Horticultural Halls in Westminster.

He was one of several who redefined the quintessential Englishwoman, with her passion for floral prints, as a free spirit.

He dressed her in patchwork floral smocks, side-split over hotpants; a vibrant, daffodil print shirt dress with a dashing African print pork-pie hat; or a delphinium print bikini under a cornflower- patterned cardigan.

Nicole Farhi, inspired by the crocheted florals on a 19th-century sewing bag owned by her French grandmother, produced a collection full of rose, dahlia, geranium and poppy printed chiffons, cottons and little knits.

Floral cardigans topped swinging, floral chiffon skirts that fluttered around the knees.

Poppy print, halterneck dresses were embroidered with poppy appliques; a damson, smocked chiffon top came with a rose embroidered skirt; and a pale jade cot