Runway Report from London: The Luella Show

This morning at the Serpentine Gallery in London, the ever-evolving, prepetually pretty-meets-punk "Luella girl" raided her grandmother's closet -- one chockablock with Chanel and genteel teatime separates.

Nine years after her debut collections on Portobello Road, super-witty Luella Bartley's recent evolution from lovably geeky to endearingly cartoonish to Eastwick witchy continues to garner the feisty youth vote while developing her sui generis demographic; one that she describes as "cute but always a little sick -- that's my girl".

While her latter pieces presented perfectly fit the bill as a quirky homage to Madame Coco herself (think box-plaid boucle jackets, tweeds galore and layered pearls aplenty), the Luella girl also took old-lady pieces -- boxy bags, delicate gloves, charming cashmere cardigans, and a profusion of ruffled pieces of yore -- for a whirl.

That's not to say that the quintessential Luella lassie has lost an ounce of her offbeat spunk: the rebelling spirit lives on in 'shroom festooned totes, exposed (admittedly twee) heart trimmed zippers and hemlines perhaps unfit for a round of pinochle with said Granny.

Photos from catwalking.com and style italia