Long considered a staunch clothing line for the mature and moneyed woman, Irvine-based St.John hosted its annual runway show for some 400 devoted fans Tuesday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

And I’m not kidding when I say devoted. Hard core is more like it. There were women who flew in from out of state and many more who hailed limos and rode in pampered style to the show. They were of course, decked out in head-to-toe St. John, some donning beloved tweed suits from several years ago. And they were more than happy to extoll the virtues of wearing the venerable label. Most of the well-coiffed ladies were in their 50s to 60s and I even spoke to an adorable 90-year-old fashion maven from Laguna Woods who cheerfully admitted to being a fan of the “bling,” pointing to the lapels of her silver studded turquoise suit.

Any signs of the 45-year-old company’s recent identity crisis after a brief attempt at reinventing itself in hopes of attracting a younger clientele — weren’t overt, and that showed in the Resort/Spring 08 collection. There seemed to be a little bit of everything for women of different age categories. (Click on the jump to see more images from the collection.)

For the more mature woman — St. John’s core client — there were plenty of classic, Chanel-esque tweed suits and for an evening look, billowy palazzo pants were paired with elegant and embellished jackets.

For the 35 to 45 set, there was an iridescent ice blue trench coat, a red leather cropped coat with gold buttons paired with a pencil skirt and an orange tweed skirt suit with an animal-print lining. And for the 25-35 set, there was a black balloon-sleeved blouse over a crisp, white pencil skirt; a form-fitting, gorgeous red mockneck knit dress and another red frock, a one-shouldered belted sweater dress.

St. John also appears to be ramping up its evening gown collection, and from the looks of it, accessories, too. A glittering red halter number drew gasps from the audience and I really dug the aviator sunglasses and pretty patent strappy sandals the models donned with the more casual looks from the sport portion of the collection.

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