Bright colours for summer-weight trousers in block hues, teamed with unlined natural fibre jackets and cool knits in wool, linen and silk set the scene. Wool blended with vegetable fibres, hemp, linen and silk was seen extensively in check shirts, madras designs and smaller apron checks in the young, casual centre.

These bright rain-washed spring colours will undoubtedly influence the choices and even the classic colours of tweeds, woollens and even worsteds, insinuating themselves into tiny spots of colour in checks and stripes for men and painting attractive women's florals on a white ground for a more elegant, dressed up approach to summer.

Airy wool once again claimed its rightful summer place in light cool, yet sophisticated, fabrics for suitings, jacketings and sporty clothes. It was found in light extrafine Merino with micro patterns, checks, stripes, herringbones and chevrons, an ideal medium for light jackets on a summer's evening, as seen at Shandong Rui, Dormeuil, Yunsa and many other high quality weavers.

Colours included grey/brown, navy, light blue and many shades in between. Designs often picked up patterns in pink, pastels or a darker navy, for unlined jackets to wear over cotton shirts and in brighter colours for women. Checks, checks and more checks were the vehicle for colour in both formal and casual collections.

The Wool Lab has done much to open up areas of fashion use for wool, and its effect could be seen in these collections, in the choice of Cool Wool, and wool blended with precious fibres and also synthetics for particular effects. Tailoring fabrics, as at Yunsa, Dormeuil, Heild Brothers, Holland & Sherry Shandong Rui and other classic houses played about with timeless tropical colonial fabrics, with light colours throughout, greys, beiges, creams, often in wool blends with linen, a favoured quality.

Women's equivalent fabrics included seersuckers, lightweight jackets and fine knits, as well as jerseys with tiny little patterns looking like old fashioned samplers, seen at the French knitters grouping Maille de France and summer tweeds at Mahlia Kent. Very fine knits were transparent in écru, white, yellow, in very fine, delicate yarns such as Extrafine Merino and natural, precious fibres many of them on show in the expanded Knitwear Solutions area.

Woolmark