Played out on catwalk a patterned with Disney clouds, Jean Charles de Castelbajac's S/S 2009 collection was, as anticipated, an colourful, cartoony antidote to the current sturm und drang of reality. It was classic Castelbajac - opening with a loony-tunes style primary splodged suit and giant jokey lego-brick spectacles and pretty much continuing from then on. Simple cotton separates in brights were childish, silly and exactly what was expected - and needed. Castelbajac's sunny optimism is currently striking a chord, if not with the uber-sophisticates of fashion's elite or those seeking an intellectual justification for the times in which we live, then with a new generation of kids whose dress up to mess up mantra is oddly in synch with this sixty-something's way of thinking. Witness Carri Mundane of Cassette Playa front row, whose own pixellated and colour-saturated sportswear offerings are direct descentants of Castelbajac's. At the same time, this show seemingly had some contemporary relevance outside of the Castelbajac Technicolor sphere: a sequinned 'Carte Gold' credit card shift and another bearing an image of Obama have some kind of resonance with the here and now, and the latter prompted applause to prove it. Likewise the surfeit of black, a sobre anti-spring trend that has crept into the vast majority of collections. The latter half of the show was, for Castelbajac, subdued - playing with this shade, alongside much white and touches of red and toying with Disney imagery. And although we assumed Castelbajac would be the last bastion of bright, there were a few all-black and entirely unembellished dresses and suits, with even relatively played-down accessories. The question of exactly who would go to Castelbajac for a tailored black trouser suit, besides a Loony Tunes widow, remains to be answered.