Union Flag skirts and My Fair Lady gowns:Dolce and Gabbana bring their Alta Moda extravaganza to London

When you say London to an Italian, what springs to mind?Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana gave us a pretty good idea on Saturday evening with their latest Alta Moda show - their equivalent of Parisian Haute Couture.

While much of the collection, which also included Alta Sartoria for the men, was made up of the duos standard fare of exquisite tailoring and Baroque curlicues, there were playful additions that could only belong here.Sequin Union Flag dresses were the most obvious tributes to a city the pair know well and feel quite at home in. After all, they have a house in Primrose Hill and they"ve just staged a dramatic takeover of Harrods for Christmas.What"s more, Gabbanas been instagramming videos of himself riding what looks like a motorised childs Trunki down Regent Street, dodging big red buses with zero sense of self preservation.Well, at least hes driving on the left-hand side of the road.

In addition to the red-white-and-blue dresses which came with matching mink minaudieres, there were tributes to famous London films.My Fair Lady delivered Edwardian silhouettes, and huge picture hats with ostrich plumes.101 Dalmatians offered up a white coat with giant black spots and surely there was some Kind Hearts and Coronets inspiration in the ball gowns.Street style got a look-in with logo t-shirts (admittedly hand-embroidered with thousands of sequins - not something Sid Vicious would recognise) and a playful take on punk saw tailored checked skirts covered in gold safety pins.Meanwhile, no brand that prides itself on its embellishment could let the Pearly Kings and Queens go by without a nod.The finale saw homegrown star Sam Rollinson in a beautifully gathered and billowing organza gown printed with yet more Union Flags, this time complete with a scarlet corset and black gloves.A patriotic Nancy from Oliver Twist?

All this took place in the marble halls of the brands Old Bond Street flagship and, unlike most fashion shows which are functional and minimal and watched by scruffy journalists on a deadline, this one saw couture clients seated on gilded thrones upholstered in crimson damask, sipping Dom Perignon 2009 while placing orders for the looks they wanted from their smartphones.It may not be a London that we recognise, but the gilded non-doms in the audience felt quite at home.