So very Sex and the City

Black leather, bondage straps, corset tops and zips - whatever would the Queen say? The dowager duchess of the fashion world, haute couture house Hardy Amies, moved a little closer to the present day last night with a surprisingly raunchy new spring/summer collection.

Once the Queen's favourite designer - the late Sir Hardy dressed her for almost half a century, gaining a royal warrant in 1952 - the venerable label has struggled to reinvent itself over the past few years since he sold the company to the Luxury Brands Group in 2001.

Thankfully, after an ill-fated venture in ready-to-wear at London Fashion Week in 2002, things finally look to be back on track with designer Ian Garlant at the reins. The 41-year-old protégé of Sir Hardy - he was discovered while studying at Kingston Polytechnic - took the bold move to add a sexy spin to the designer's signature tailoring for the first haute couture collection since Sir Hardy's death last March.

Sending out cut-away wool jackets, empire-line belted dresses, zippy leather bolero jackets, flippy short skirts and split, full-length Grecian goddess evening gowns on a cast that included celebrity model Lisa Butcher and blue-blood, redhead Olivia Inge, Garlant made the sedate haute couture house seem positively modern.

Even the oh-so-refined salon in Savile Row had been specially decked out in industrial metal sheets to add to the effect. And was that really drum'n'bass playing on the soundtrack?

No doubt the made-to-order collection - that includes both men's and women's wear - will prove to be a seductive proposition for the fashion label's somewhat diverse clientele.

"The show was all about underlining the tailoring skills of the house," said Garlant afterwards.

"Tailoring was always Sir Hardy's strong point from the beginning but it is more than just about suits.

"We are not about exotic colour combinations and prints here, it is all about cut and shape." But would Sir Hardy have approved of the risqué new look?

After all, he was once quoted as saying: "Anything blatantly sexy can never be chic."

Garlant seems quite sure that his mentor would have been delighted.

"Remember he was born before women got the vote and he started dressing women in the restrictive Forties," he said.

"But as a person, Hardy was very much about sex."

What's the next step for this oh-so-British label?

Garlant is heading off with the collection to Shanghai next week and there is a ready-towear range already in the pipeline.

And who knows, perhaps next year Hardy Amies could even be setting its sights on the Oscars.