WINNIPEG --Turns out there's always room for a second helping of Gwen Stefani.

The platinum-tressed pop princess, who last played Winnipeg in November 2005, made the most of her return to the MTS Centre stage last night, outfitting her second solo tour with all the glitz and spectacle we've come to expect from such a trend-setting fashionista.

As with Stefani's albums, both the breakout debut Love.Angel.Music.Baby and last year's less enthusiastically received The Sweet Escape, style still threatened to outweigh substance at times, making the show's visual elements far more of a treat than the tunes. But for the most part, Stefani gave her fans exactly what they wanted, ensuring she'll be welcomed warmly the next time she decides to come back.

Even her entrance was a perfectly staged little bit of theatre. With spotlights cutting a swath through the darkness to the strains of Elvis Costello's Watching the Detectives, bogus police officers chased two of Gwen's Harajuku girls through the crowd and onto the stage.

Once there, they were joined by Stefani, who busted out of a gold-plated jail cell just in time to sing the title track from The Sweet Escape, as well a bevy of backup dancers and Akon, the controversy-plagued rapper who cameos on the song.

Looking impossibly leggy in a spangly short-suit with black and white jailhouse stripes, Stefani quickly made herself at home with her entourage, cavorting with cops and criminals alike as the song gave way to the Fiddler on the Roof-inspired Rich Girl.

The outfit was one of several Stefani modelled over the course of the night. For Yummy and 4 in the Morning, she changed into a minidress cinched with a massive Japanese sash, for the Sound of Music-sampling Wind It Up, she threw on a sharp-looking hounds-tooth blazer, and on Hollaback Girl, she surfaced wearing a pair of bright red short-shorts.

The costume changes helped distract from the fact that, even with two albums under her belt, Stefani still has a bit of trouble keeping the momentum going, as evidence by a few lulls early on.

Not that the show didn't have its moments. On Early Winter, for instance, Stefani hit some sweeping high notes while flanked by video images of snow falling on her recent coke-whore incarnation, then turned the reins over to bassist Gail Ann Dorsey, (best known for her work with David Bowie).

On Wind It Up, she recreated some of the von Trapp family's best dance routines, and on Danger Zone and Hollaback Girl, she trotted out her cheerleader shtick while the Harajuku girls busted out dance moves in formation behind her.