Australian Fashion Week Autumn Winter 2005

Melbourne's queen of tight pants and short skirts kicked off the Australian Fashion Week autumn/winter 2005 show with a new look yesterday.

Bettina Liano squeezed a few hundred buyers and media into her city shop for breakfast and a knockout show of shapely satin-and-denim corset tops and lace-trimmed flip and ra-ra skirts ruched and gathered to protrude stiffly from the hips.

Liano's overtly sexual signature was tempered by romanticism and a bohemian femininity. Velvet, satin and sheer chiffon were unusual elements in a Liano collection.

One blouse in white chiffon said it all with its softly ballooned sleeves and frilled cuffs draped over the model's fingers. "Bettina's gone girly," commented one unimpressed buyer. "I liked the sex stuff better."

She was one of few. "It's quite romantic and olde-worlde - they're things I'd design for myself, things to flatter," Liano said after the show, surrounded by her mother, daughters, father, step-mother and cousin.