Jenny Packham gives New York and Angelina Jolie the red carpet treatment The Jenny Packham Fall 2012 collection at New York Fashion Week Photograph: Richard Drew/AP Jenny Packham is a British designer who traded in her much ignored slot at London fashion week for a piece of Manhattan action four seasons ago. Anyone in any doubt as to her reasoning only had to look at the parade of red-carpet-friendly dresses on the catwalk to work out why. The show which focused solely on evening wear was a love letter to Hollywood, dresses in turn to suit Angelina Jolie and the Duchess of Cambridge - two of the label's most high-profile fans. The collection blithely ignored trends in favour of flashbulb-catching details intended to feature on best-dressed lists. It was a crystal-encrusted hand gesture to a fashion industry that remains unmoved by the label's current red carpet ranking. "There was pressure to be quirky in London and here I can just be glamorous and everyone can be happy about it," said the designer backstage. She also admitted that "it's great to show ahead of the Oscars." Her honesty was emphasised in the notes for the show, which included pictures of celebrities wearing her gowns for any attendee who had missed the fact that the label was duchess-endorsed and Kate Winslet approved. The show took 1946 film noir as its starting point, with dry ice billowing out from the start of the catwalk as a model wearing a knee-length dress fitted out in red crystals emerged. Rolled gangster's moll hair emphasised the look. "The Postman Always Rings Twice was my starting point," explained Packham. Lana Turner in a white turban. The designer said that she wanted a stronger look this season "because we are dressing Angelina Jolie now." A full-length black gown with long sleeves and a bugle-beaded shoulder detail was surely a sartorial shout out to Jolie come Oscar night. But lest the duchess feel overlooked, the end section of the show featured long, pale-blue bias-cut crepe dresses with more of a charity gala feel; and knee-length silk crepe dresses with black grosgrain belts seemed princess friendly. Of the Middleton effect for her label, Packham said: "It's not like Reiss, people don't come looking for a particular style but it has raised awareness of the brand." If the Packham show emphasised a disconnect between the fashion industry's quest for trends and pure red carpet dressing, then the Preen show later in the day underlined how a move to the US can give a British label a healthy dollop of slickness. The brand was born in west London 15 years ago, began showing in New York several season's ago, and is now firmly established on the US fashion calendar. Each season the label pulls off a neat trick of marrying quirky British-born sensibilities combined with a New York-learned commercial sense. For this collection the designers Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi took Beatrix Potter as their starting point for "her botanical prints rather than her squirrels." adding: "She was such a modern woman for her day." The pair then contrasted Potter's prints with the aesthetic of the abstract expressionists, citing Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns and Mark Rothko as inspiration. The result was sharply tailored trousers and dresses created from blocks of colour with a patchwork of panels and chiffon butterfly prints. Sleeves had colour-blocked cuffs while pencil skirts had perfectly placed pocket flaps which both flattered and looked fashion savvy. This collection was slick, modern yet wearable and proved one of the highlights of New York fashion week so far.