One of Australia cinema's hottest properties, actress Toni Collette, has made a surprise appearance at the London Fashion Week to parade the work of an Irish designer. Dublin-based Lainey Keogh and Collette, who recently attended the Berlin film festival, met in Kathmandu last summer.

Keogh's previous London shows have brought gasps as much for the models who paraded - Naomi Campbell, Marianne Faithfull and Helena Christensen - as for the designs. This year's designs, shown at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, were inspired by Indian themes.

Collette is best-known for her portrayal of the frumpy young girl who heads to the city to find love and marriage in Muriel's Wedding, for which she ballooned from a size 10 to size 18. But she is now appearing as a detectivee in The Pallbearer; a young country girl who wins a competition to meet princess Diana in Diana and Me; the wife of a glam-rock star in Velvet Goldmine, which also stars Ewan McGregor; and the girlfriend of one of a group of men on the edge of drugs and violence in The Boys.