Paul Smith, like all tailors, is a man who enjoys a straight line. If there were any curves at the designer’s show, I missed them – apart from the bodies of the sporty models and a squishy handbag.

The rest of the show was about stripes, a nautical-meets-office parade of jackets, skirts and dresses, perhaps with pleats to add another layer of lines. It all added up to a fresh summer look, where the most daring development was a dress with red, sky- and inky-blue lines and a waft of (straight) feathers at the hip line.

The clothes seemed smart and woman-friendly – in that they would work as hard as we do. But all those stripes and straight lines lacked soul. Then, suddenly, right at the show’s ending came a sharply cut white shirt, softened with smudgy blue flowers – and the same pattern caught up in dark navy pleats below.

This was a fine example of the soft-and-sharp effect that could have had more traction in the rest of the collection.