Gothic romance from Giles in London

Black lipstick, white neck ruffles with pearls, tailored jackets over sweeping printed skirts -- British label Giles channelled gothic romance for its autumn/winter collection at London Fashion Week on Monday.

There were black capes and dresses, adorned with black or white bows at the arms, back or neck, a shiny black patent leather coat with puffed shoulders and a frilled, layered white shirt dress.

Other outfits were printed with delicate images of bare branches, with flashes of silver suggesting a bracelet had become caught, and whimsical designs of mushrooms, ideas that came from designer Giles Deacon's wanderings in a London garden.

"I've been spending quite a lot of time in the Chelsea Physic Garden, which was started in 1673 and was intended to explore plants and healing and their properties from around the world," he told reporters after the show.

"It's very peaceful, quite romantic but also has a bit of a sinister aspect at certain times of night."

The hallucinogenic properties of some of the plants also inspired the grey and white graphic prints on many of the clothes, which were made from magnifying and blurring old paintings.

The show ended with one such printed dress made of pleats stiffened into a fan at the front and layers emerging at all angles below the waist, shown off by a dancing, spinning model.

Deacon, a former British designer of the year who started his label in 2004, said he had deliberately chosen girls with strong characters who would bring life to the clothes.

"It's something that I feel very strongly about... I'm so bored of seeing this homogenous (group) of gorgeous girls just all looking like robots from the same factory," he said.