Does Louis Vuitton really have so much power that its designer thinks of the drowned city of Atlantis – and then, on show day, rain of Biblical proportions falls on Paris? Saving us from the downpour, the show space was made up of tent-like sculpted pods at the back of the LV art foundation in the Bois de Boulogne.

Inside, artistic effects were on the agenda, with French artist Justin Morin creating a neanderthal landscape of mirrored rocks for the models to navigate.

 

 

For more distraction, there was a posse of young celebrities who each – from Alicia Vikander and Selma Blair to Léa Seydoux and Jennifer Connelly – posed with Creative Director Nicolas Ghesquière in their short skirts, taut tops, and preferably carrying an LV handbag. In the centre of the line-up, Catherine Deneuve, in a tailored blue coat, offered some reality chic.

On the very last day of shows from New York, through London, to Milan and Paris, the fashion crowd was closing in on the final scene. And if it had not been for the crazy razzmatazz surrounding the Louis Vuitton show, this might have been an exceptional summing up of dressing for today.

Take away all the diversions – from the undulating runway to the bright spotlights – and there were some strong, modern clothes in the designer’s futurism-meets-sport spirit.

“At Louis Vuitton, my remit is to create new classics and to reflect on them – to decide how much a shirt is unbuttoned, the way women dress today – but I didn’t invent anything,” the designer said.

Nicolas was honest about his collection with its surprising combinations of hybrid outfits, such as a short, taut jacket with trousers between sweatpants and jogging bottoms. But the designer may have underplayed his creative skills. For example, there were bodysuits with a skeletal patterning that turned out to be knitwear – the cashmere treated the same way as synthetic sports clothes. Wake-up moments included a bustier outside the bodice, its toughness linked to thick, laced-up walking boots.

The designer said that he wanted to reflect digital methods in a luxury fabric, and knowing that references to sport are now part of mainstream fashion, he linked high tech with classic cashmere.

Since there were no official show notes (at least before I wrote this review), I had to make my own conclusions: the rather familiar chain and leather strap pattern (hello Hermes!) on the opening dresses seemed less innovative than later flower prints, created so that they poured diagonally across a silken pinafore over a plain, black sweater splashed with colour. The sophistication of the collection included slits creating tiny whispers of flesh on a tailored suit.