Neat tailoring for the over-13s

London Fashion Week, which ends today, was treated to a funny half hour yesterday afternoon when Sebastian, the label of an ex-St Martin's College ingenu, Belgrade-born Predrag Pajdic, showed his first collection. For once, jaded fashion hacks could hardly control their titters as deeply kinky 18th-century costumes worn by dancers and actors were paraded before them. He described it as "not a fashion show but a front-line fashion performance".

Rumours that he had spent pounds 80,000 on staging the show proved untrue, but as one designer said afterwards, he would have done better to spend the money on the clothes. As the screeching operatic singing reached fever pitch, a male model took to the cat-walk in a pair of sheer tights that left nothing to the imagination. Sebastian has a great future ahead of him in theatrical costume design; he also dresses Mystic Meg, the TV astrologer.

There were fewer theatrics and more clothes at Pearce Fionda's second independent cat-walk show sponsored by Marks & Spencer. It was a relief to see some beautifully constructed, well thought-out clothes that women over the age of 13 will want to wear.

The duo's signature tailoring - neat jackets, sculptured to the body with curvy petlums and skirts that flipped out from behind to form an elegant line - were a breath of fresh air. Even the pencil skirts that had been cropping up at almost every collection were cut so as to allow freedom of movement.

Also showing his second collection yesterday was Fabio Piras, an Italian who came to London when he gained a place at St Martin's. The designer has a sharp eye for purity of line and his thoroughly modernist collection of beautifully seamed dresses, easy-to-wear jackets, and cropped-to-the- calf trou-sers was both commercial and a delight.

Another View, page 18

Fashion, Section Two