NADINE KAM / NKAM@STARBULLETIN.COM Fighting Eel heads into fall with daring minis in autumn hues featuring plunging or halter necklines that call for straightening your posture.

Bold & sexy

Fighting Eel's fall line debuts with models showing Bond-girl flair

The new James Bond film, "Casino Royale," won't debut until November, but Bond girls turned up during Fighting Eel's fall preview show, held July 19 at Restaurant Row to help celebrate the first anniversary of CrazyBeautiful.

The boutique's large glass display window was papered over and back-lit to reveal curvy silhouettes writhing in the background while models with teased hair and retro makeup walked a red carpet lined with votives.

As befitting a Bond girl, Fighting Eel continues to create fluid separates and dresses that manage, quite amazingly, to be bold and sexy, languid and active, casual and dressy, all at the same time.

A few dresses are reminiscent of the screen-siren era of "Jungle Princess" Dorothy Lamour and her body-hugging sarongs, while jumpsuits recall the early days of women's liberation.

Today's liberated woman, of course, knows what she wants, and Fighting Eel's local designers, Lan Chung and Rona Bennett, consistently deliver.

The fall collection will begin making its way into boutiques across the country in mid-August.