Paris fashion week: The Paris catwalk shows are nothing if not studies in striking contrasts. Next spring may be all about cropped trousers, flirty dresses, bright prints and a lot of black and white, but interpreted in a thousand different ways.
You could hardly find designers more diverse in their approach to women's clothes than Paco Rabanne and Clements Ribeiro. They have absolutely nothing in common other than that on Saturday they presented collections in the Louvre.
Paco Rabanne is to plastic what husband and wife team Clements Ribeiro are to prints and they all played to their strengths in their signature ways.
From the moment the first model flashed out in a silver mini, a vest of silver discs and a grey hoodie, the tone was set at Paco Rabanne's show where Rosemary Rodriguez is now artistic director.
It was shine, shine, shine as silver polished up sportswear, flowed in strips down tracksuits, decorated white parkas and made evening straps on grey dresses sparkle. Short shifts were composed of chain mail or draped like liquid over the body. A silver string vest gave a new elevation to a mundane item.
Even bikinis were suits of silver and bras were shining breastplates that sent reflective flashes across the auditorium.
It might be facetious to say it was a sterling collection, but it was certainly high voltage and two impeccably dressed madames sitting beside me became quite excited.
In between the glitter and the glare came dresses built of alternating horizontal bands of coloured and clear plastic anchored with metal links, leitmotifs that evoked Rabanne's glory days in the 1960s.
It was change rather than chains at Cacharel, where Clements Ribeiro have revived the French brand with their judicious combination of colourful prints, stripes and plain fabrics. Fatigues and cropped trousers appeared with zippered sides in plain or Liberty prints.
Candy striped cotton dresses and dungarees, black and white speckled chiffons and belted cotton coats were chic and sporty, while traditional camouflage colours were expressed in floral motifs. Cacharel not only brightened up Victorian and Edwardian prints, but also used striking patterns by Celia Birtwell, former partner of the late, great Ossie Clark.
There were no florals at Chloe, where Phoebe Philo's stunning collection perfectly captured a tomboyish mood of sporty femininity. Leggy denims with plaited waistbands were worn with sweet, delicate lace or chiffon blouses or bleached white t-shirts.
Slightly oversized rugby shirts in black and pink bumblebee stripes slouched over shorts. Jackets were sharp, narrow and crisp - often in dazzling white.