Smiling and Dancing at Romeo Gigli Show

Fashion's fun side took the limelight at the Romeo Gigli show on Friday, with models smiling, dancing and twirling down the catwalk in designer Gentucca Bini's playful womenswear designs.

First down the aisle was a black, bald woman in a huge black and aquamarine checked baggy suit, carrying an enormous scarlet suede portfolio and sporting dark green suede platform shoes.

Bini turned the tables on soft tops and heavier bottoms, using striped silk for baggy trousers under jumpers of thick wool felt.

"It was as if the same outfit became a different thing just by changing the material," Bini said in a statement.

Models with piled-high pre-Raphaelite hair and whitened faces like Cate Blanchett's Elizabeth took each others' hands and turned each other around, or took their heavy, rounded platform shoes off halfway down the catwalk.

A long, sherbet orange and pink check dress won applause, not least for the wearer's kisses to the audience, while the same fabric pitched up in a dress under a purple wet-look cape coat.

Swirling skirts and satin shirts were cinched at the waist in wide chestnut leather cummerbunds or swathes of fabric.

A pistachio and sparkle loose short-sleeved shirt was worn with black cotton baggy trousers and chestnut suede boots.

Half-gloves, which covered fingers, thumbs and just part of the palm, triggered more smiles in the audience.