New York Fashion Week: Matthew Williamson

Hilary Alexander reports from New York fashion week

London’s Matthew Williamson took Madame Butterfly at Macchu Picchu as his muse, with a rainbow parade of Incan print, metallic sheepskin and floral tapestry.

	Bohemian rhapsody

Multi-coloured knits with embroidered leather cuffs came with short, bubble-skirts in bronze, waxed cotton parkas were lined with the exotic patterns reflecting the native dress worn by the peasant-women of Peru, and short suit skirt-suits were in dazzling florals, re-embroidered with roses and peonies, and accessorized with fur mufflers and hoods.

Boho-style kaftans – of the kind adored by Williamson’s muse, Sienna Miller – in a shocking pink fern-printed chiffon floated around the knee or the ankle.

His red carpet looks were equally short or long: a feather-cut chiffon mini with a figure-hugging, metallic-sequinned torso or an ankle-grazing, empire-line gown in neon-pink and yellow embroidered georgette, worn with a sequinned, fur vest.