MILAN - At age 41, former supermodel Naomi Campbell still has what it takes to work the catwalk.

Striding down the runway in a Roberto Cavalli evening gown on Monday, the last day of the Milan Fashion Week, she received a rapturous applause from the crowd which remained reserved throughout the Italian designer's show.

Campbell looked in fine form as she modelled Cavalli's sparkly burgundy creation which featured an open back and deep "V" neck.

"I am here because Roberto seduces me," Campbell said in an Associated Press report.

Campbell's appearance was a saving grace for Cavalli's womens wear collection for next winter, which was confusing at times for the audience.

The designer himself, who rather eccentrically took a German shepherd around the catwalk to greet front-row guests, opted for both mini- and maxi-length dresses which were decked out in a wild array of animal prints and garish colours.

He said the collection captured "an earthly paradise populated by creatures of fantasy, the Eden of femininity" and "a sensual and mysterious being," but most of the outfits lacked elegance and struggled to convince.

Short dresses and miniskirts covered in fish scales or with a python effect in turquoise, midnight blues or pinks were embellished with printed or inlaid fur, and worn with gloves to the elbow - ubiquitous on catwalks this season.

The maxi dresses were truly unnerving: tops closed to the neck with a Victorian-era feel flowed into vast skirts in cashmere and mink with crocodile designs, which billowed out and made the wearer look like an unhappy octopus.

The prints were taken from hand-painted canvases of animal skins, and Cavalli went big on big cat motifs, both on the clothes and the catwalk, which was decorated with roses bunched together to mimic tiger stripes.