Like any good lover of fashion week, I scrutinized the show reports as they came in and pored over the photos as dress after jacket after shirt came storming down the catwalks. One of the main aspects of fashion week reporting is to try and decipher the trends, from the general (nautical, tailored etc) to the wacky (Flintstones at Jeremy Scott and inflatable dinosaurs at Giles Deacon). For me, the more exciting and fantastical the trend, the better it is. Ok, so I love a piece of Stella McCartney tailoring or Roland Mouret sculpturing as much as the next girl, but I much prefer to gawp over pictures of oversize hats, ‘armadillo’ platforms and frog accessories (thanks Vivienne), after all, what are fashion weeks for if not to explore the boundaries of fashion interpretation? There’s no need to take it all so seriously.

So imagine my delight at the spring/summer 2010 shows. Not only did we get the aforementioned dinosaurs, frogs and even strawberries (at the normally traditional Yves Saint Laurent), but one of the biggest trends across the catwalks and cities, the trend for fantasy: from futurism to fairytales. John Galliano, he of the fantasy pirate look, always creates clothes that look as if they jumped from the pages of a Victorian book of fairytales. The runway was lit up by laser beams, creating an eerie glow as the models walked down, completed by floating bubbles that evaporated around the outfits. Magical! The overall aesthetic was a little Tim Burton-esque, feathered and flowered head-gear, delicate embroidery, wispy lace and exaggerated shapes – curved skirts, puffy sleeves and sheer over-lays. If I wouldn’t look quite so crazy walking down the street I would be trying to recreate the look just to make myself smile on a daily basis. Well it works for Helena Bonham Carter.

Another fantasy story look came from new London wonder-kid Kinder Aggugini, whose designs were on the other end of the whimsical scale – bold stripes, ringlets, doll-like lips and huge oversize hats skewed the perception of size and shape for the collection. Very Alice in Wonderland after she falls down the rabbit hole. In fact, although polar-opposites in how the designs were executed, both Galliano and Aggugini had a very Lewis Carroll approach to the new season. And lo and behold, they seem to be leaning the right way in terms of seasonal trends, what with Tim Burton’s hotly anticipated version of Alice in Wonderland, for release next year, already creating a fashion stir. Stills from the film were leaked on to the internet, showing Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in a look that could have waltzed straight out of the Galliano show room. I can’t wait to immerse myself in the tripped-out world of Alice when it finally hits our screens, and perhaps I could wear a Kinder Aggugini outfit to the cinema as a tribute to the fashion-fantasy world of Alice? Although I suppose a giant hat would be out of the question.