If you ever needed an excuse to get all ruffed up, John Rocha’s got a pretty good one with his plush organza collars for autumn 2014. This period costume detail created the kind of romantic gothic women you’d find in an Edgar Allen Poe story, the romance part also being more than apparent in layer upon layer of lustrous ruffles and a rose corsage that made Carrie Bradshaw’s collection of the accessory look positively demure.

Indeed, volume was the key word with this collection, coming also from billowing shapes, made all the more dramatic by lace and velvet as heavy as furnishings in a Transylvanian mansion.

The stormy weather outside the show proved the perfect backdrop for the pieces, which in deep shades of black, ivy and scarlet spoke of spooky nights in a haunted manor.

It wasn’t entirely the stuff of ghost stories, however. Casually styled with sheer knee and ankle sock poking out of bikerish buckled shoes gave the collection a rockabilly edge that let you know these girls were badass weirdos rather than freaked out damsels in distress.

That doesn’t mean the collection was too tough to be feminine, however, romance was a strong force at play after all, which a breath of fresh air in the form of pastel flower applique reminded us that.

Bad girls aren’t so bad after all.