Most people save the best for last. For L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, the best was deemed to be denim juggernaut Sass & Bide, who were given the entire runway allocation to run amok with their blue jean babes. But just how would a single designer duo fill-up a show slot that had encompassed up to seven designers during the week-

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By turning a simple parade into a spectacle, that's how. It began with the screening of a short film entitled 'Tuesday's Child'. Dream-like with eerie qualities, the scenes depicted a male driver searching for the lost love of his life. The lost love was, of course, dressed head-to-toe in Sass & Bide outfits, which must have changed every 30 seconds or so. It wasn't an overly commercial exercise in collaboration, as designers Sarah-Jane Clarke and Heidi Middleton, and filmmaker Jarrod Dean captured the emotional content of the characters well. But it sure was a nifty alternative to a clothing catalogue.

Then the spotlights came on, and settled over the form of a white Baby Grand situated on the catwalk. A pianist joined the setting just as a young man stepped onto stage sporting a baseball cap and black jeans. What came out of his mouth shocked us all: booming, classically trained vocals of perfection. The unusual suspect turned out to be Samuel Dundas, one of Victorian Opera's bright young stars, and certainly the surprise of the night.

What didn't surprise were the clothes, when they finally appeared following the operatic introduction. As expected, at least half the collection comprised denim: wide-leg jeans, skinny-leg jeans, tight shorts, rolled capris, overalls, mini skirts the list was almost endless. And various washes were shown for each design, including black denim, dark denim and bleached denim.

In the non-denim department, there were a few standout alternative fabrics. A red heart-printed cream fabric showed up in a lot of designs, from tiny shorts to flirty frocks, while a charcoal and white check featured in a more modest skirt and shoestring-strapped dress, with red button accents.

If denim makes up the majority of Sass & Bide's sales, then t-shirts mustn't be far behind. And there were a lot of them during this showing some came with sequinned motifs (a spade or a dark moon), logos (a simple 'SB'), classic S&B slogans ('Lady Bay'), and House of Holland's rhyming phrasing: 'Fancy a ride Sass & Bide'.

There was also a French-printed tee, which read 'Je rêve de toi' translated, 'I dream of you'. Along with the berets worn chicly by some models, it was a sure sign that Sass & Bide were feeling decidedly Parisian. The cute black and cream jersey dresses with striking reverse detailing looked like very modern versions of Chanel classics, and much more affordable options, no doubt. And the ubiquitous trench coat made an appearance in black, with a much shorter, swing hemline than its previously shown counterparts.

But arguably the best feature of the show was not the jeans, the tees or the dresses it was the hosiery. Sass & Bide's legwear came in a myriad of styles, colours and textures, including over-the-knee black socks, grey lurex and gold lame tights, white opaques, gold metallic knee-highs, and the standouts: cream or black tights with bronze dots arranged in a zig-zagging pattern.

While fans will covet the new jean shapes and snap up the clever slogan tees, those who've only seen Sass & Bide as jean genies will now see the label in a new light possibly one that's reflected by their new metallic leggings.