Fashion goes bananas

An hour after Philip Treacy's couture show was due to start, the rumours were circulating. Kate Moss was about to make her first catwalk appearance since giving birth to her daughter four months ago. The excitement was palpable. Would the crash diet have worked? Would Britain's most famous model look fabulous again?

Kate Moss did indeed appear on the catwalk, but alas, not in person. She was immortalised as a black and white photo printed on a Treacy hat. Not to be outdone, Naomi Campbell modelled a hat featuring Naomi Campbell.

The show was a homage to the pop art of Andy Warhol, with Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and Liza Minnelli all made into jaunty little titfers. Ex-Wonderbra model Eva Herzigova even wore a tribute to David Beckham and it can only be a matter of time before Becks orders one for himself.

Wearing the briefest satin underwear, the models writhed suggestively around poles. Pole dancing is the latest way to lose weight in fashionable circles, so it was hardly a surprise that Treacy chose the Pink Paradise, one of Paris's swankiest lapdancing clubs, for his show. Even his latest muse, 21-year-old Lady Eloise Anson, embraced her role with gusto with a banana atop her head.

Treacy is the first milliner to have been invited to show during Paris couture week in over 80 years, a testament to his skill and reputation. The London-based designer, who at 36 has already made hats for Chanel, Valentino and Versace, is the toast of Parisian and London society, and dresses celebrities and royalty from his shop in Belgravia. His hats at Royal Ascot always steal the show.

So it was a pity that Treacy did not exercise the wilder reaches of his imagination. When he ditched the Warhol theme, his hats were far more beautiful and exciting. A vast nest of multi-coloured feather butterflies and a graphic pink disc were far more palatable than a tin of Campbell's soup.