So many beautiful clothes, so little time: London Fashion Week produced its busiest day on Monday, with blockbuster shows including Burberry Prorsum and McQ by the Alexander McQueen house jostling for editors’ attention.

The day also saw a futuristic punk aesthetic marrying beaded florals at Kane

Alexander McQueen

There was also an autumnal feel at the debut of the McQ line, a new offering from the fashion house of the late Alexander McQueen, now headed by Sarah Burton, who gained worldwide fame last year for her design of Kate Middleton’s wedding gown.

The McQ line is designed to be a more affordable range for a younger, less affluent crowd. The prospect at a first look at Burton’s legendary handiwork drew a frenzied crowd Monday night, and they arrived to find the catwalk — in fact the entire stage — thick with fallen leaves. One end of the hall was transformed into dark woods, giving the entire set a forested feel.

Most of the models had strange, saucer-like hairstyles, giving them a space-age, inhuman feel, and many wore military-style coat dresses embellished with beading and embroidery. Thigh-high lace boots and long trench coats added to the look. A Scottish influence was felt throughout, with some of the male models dressed in kilts.

Some of the black flared dresses with colour bursts on the front were dramatic, but overall the line lacked the imaginative spark long associated with the McQueen house.

Burberry

At Burberry, the emphasis was on classic Englishness. There were riding jackets galore, as well as velvet quilting, herringbone wool and tweed caps — and of course incarnations of the brand’s most famous garment, the trench coat.

Bailey, who has been at the helm of Burberry for more than a decade and is credited with revitalising the once-fusty brand, said he wanted to merge city style and country living.

Bridle leather straps, shearling parkas and quilting were evocative of the horse-riding country lifestyle of the English upper class, while cute owl drawings and appliques on some of the collection’s T-shirts and sweaters, as well as gold metal fox belt buckles, were a fun and quirky take on the “country” theme.

A huge range of coats and jackets made up much of the collection. Colours were rich and autumnal, with mustard, burgundy, blackcurrant and forest green, while wide horizontal stripes in gray, navy and honey kept the look young and vibrant.

Bailey likes to put on an entertaining show. This season he closed his display with a clap of thunder, a realistic torrent of rain falling on the show tent’s glass windows and a finale of umbrella-toting models walking down the catwalk to clear confetti.

What could be more British?

“I quite like celebrating rain,” said Bailey. “I like the romance. I quite like the melancholy.”