Louis Vuitton Spring/Summer 2016: Brave New Worlds

Against a backdrop of flickering screens, Nicolas Ghesquiere took his audience on a magical journey at his Louis Vuitton show in Paris this morning. These were places, according to the show notes, 'where the only limit is your imagination'. It was a lovely thought and one that ultimately went to prove that very few designers working in the fashion industry today are bold, brave, talented and, well, imaginative enough to propose.

M Ghesquiere is most certainly one of them. His work at the turn of the millennium for Balenciaga has been referenced more than ever this season. His tenure at Vuitton is, increasingly, powerfully influential.

This was a collection that riffed on contrasts: masculine and feminine, ultra-luxurious and utilitarian, real and faux... The list goes on. Studded all-in-ones with leather harnessing and gleaming zippers were cut in liquid silks. Knee-length kilts were punkish in silhouette but, elaborately embroidered and reflective: they looked great worn with a neutrally coloured boucle wool jacket and even better with a silver string vest.

This designer has always cut a mean perfecto. Now, with the workmanship of the Vuitton leather ateliers at his fingertips, he has taken these to new heights. Hand-painted in rainbow colours, panelled with red and white stripes on one sleeve and the iconic Vuitton monogram on the other or in black with a finely plaited belt at the hem they will fly off the shelves.

There was a vague Sixteenth Century feel to at least some of the volumes: imagine bias cut white cotton bubble skirts, high-knecked shirting delicately frilled at bib front and cuffs and tiny crop tops that bounced when models walked.

Nicolas Ghesquiere has said in the past 'my recipe remains the same' and retro-futurism is very much part of that story. His interest in the sci-fi cinema and video games of the 1980s and early Nineties was clearly in evidence here: this time shades of Total Recall. His manipulation of fabric - the deliberate warping of the haute and the humble - and a constant search for new proportions are more significant still.

In their often flat Richelieu shoes, dangling all important bags from oversized Speedies to bijou Petites Malles, models looked cool, individual and emancipated in the extreme. An army of free spirits in a beautifully conceived world.