Alexander McQueen leads the way forward at London Collections: Men

Sarah Burton, who as Alexander McQueen designer headlined the second day of the London menswear shows, had already been thinking about Japanese kabuki theatre before she visited the Matisse Cut-Outs exhibition at Tate Modern this spring. The two came together in a colourful, upbeat McQueen catwalk show on Monday that expressed renewed optimism and a forward-looking attitude for the brand.

"I wanted it to be less period than usual, without so much historicism" said Burton back stage after the show. "What I got from the references was an idea of scale and proportion, and the impact of the simple shapes on a clean background."