Antonio Berardi Spring 2013 | Runway

It may have featured the season's requisite decorations and used its popular materials (sequins, paillettes, mesh, sheer fabrics, and their ilk), but Antonio Berardi's Spring 2013 collection was more about exploring shape than it was about chasing trends.

"Everything was incredibly geometric, the idea was that it was architectural, even the silhouettes," Berardi said backstage after the show — and he wasn't kidding. Most of the skirt hems in his collection fell to two severe points after cascading in wide arcs off his models' hips. Jackets featuring generous extensions of the peplum featured the same effect. Meanwhile, sequins snaked down from the shoulders of jackets and dresses or up from the cuffs of trousers and sleeves to create a graphic appeal. That these bits of shiny stuff had an iridescent quality is worth noting: it's something we've seen from more than one London designer at this point.