Stella McCartney

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By Suzy Menkes

PARIS — Mesh materials, aerated fabrics and a sense of dynamism on the runways are the counterpoint to a couture sensibility that belongs to an opposing fashion team.

Sport is in the air. Perhaps for British designers it is a foretaste of the 2012 Olympics, like the energetic collection from Stella McCartney on Monday.

But mostly the trend for active influence goes — game, set and match — to Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy , whose sportswear with a sexual charge from his summer show last year is all over the spring/summer 2012 runways.

So perhaps that is why Mr. Tisci moved on – or rather, back — to couture excellence. His swooping tailoring and sharkskin materials looked to a world of water — not the aerobic energy of an Olympic pool but rather the lure of the deep and its sea creatures. With handfuls of shark teeth hanging around the neck, eel-like undulations to jackets, fish-scale fabrics and moonlight silver reflective surfaces, the show captured the designer's disturbing glamour.

But the clothes, with their intricate workmanship and a penchant toward evening, seemed more appropriate to couture than ready-to-wear. It was tough, as the models raced by on their shark-fin heels, to take in the complexity that went into chiffon cascading in waves down a blouse, sequined silver lapels twisting around a jacket and a technique of hanging dresses on the body from metallic chains.

The message that came across was of sexed-up couture, with very short skirts, in flesh and shell pink colors, swooped upwards at the front with the inside thighs (and more) partially veiled. On super models like Giselle Bünchen and Natalia Vodianova, that might be glamorous (although both had more covered-up looks). On most women it would seem crude. But that is not a word to associate with Givenchy or its designer, who takes such infinite care to make special clothes. It is just that the overall effect of this collection missed a beat.

Stella McCartney was into two things that are supposed to be a male vibe: sex and sport. And the mix made a lively women's collection, with more mesh than you would find on a tennis court worked in curving lines into lithe, taut dresses.

"Effortless and optimistic, the summer is so short, you have to enjoy it," the designer said, putting the finishing touches to the models with her 9-month-old daughter in her arms.

Ms. McCartney's collections are always a reflection of self. So the roomy, post-pregnancy dresses that were part of last season's look were junked in favor of the other half of the show: clingy, peep-show dresses that were such a hit in Hollywood.

Intelligent thought had gone into making summer 2012 seem easy but stylish: stretch dresses with injections of mesh or rough lace; a fuzzy sweater with relaxed pants; and a dress in an interlocking pattern that was matched on a squishy bag. But it was the final sporty looks, with mesh-like tennis racquets at the shoulder and curvy cut outs that made the sport/sex cut.

The pleats flying and flowing from almost every outfit on the Chloé runway were designed as a way for Clare Waight Keller, the house's new designer, to express freedom for her woman. The pleats came billowing out from the neckline of a dress, or were more controlled as skirt pleated from the waist or the hips. Since they dominated the show, different tactics made for alternate looks, like leather slicing through the folds or lines of bright color.

An airy lightness was the theme, with a few broderie anglaise outfits that might have been developed into the season's pervasive mesh theme. The effect was light and pretty, but the Chloé girl needed a firmer anchor of tailoring or perhaps the knitting that Ms. Waight Keller excelled in during her previous role at Pringle of Scotland.

The designer was right to go light on the Chloé heritage — even if the floral embroideries she picked from the archives must be the dullest thing Karl Lagerfeld ever designed. Telling it from a point of view of what she called "female complicity," Ms. Waight Keller made a start with her Chloé story, which she can develop further next season.

The new team at Kenzo , consisting of the cool American retailers Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, could be reinventing the fashion show business. Their snappy, happy presentation had a mini runway in a courtyard with an arm-waving welcome to the show that was on a continuous loop inside.

This unpretentious way of showing lively, sporty clothes in shiny fabrics made them seem dynamic, while a print of links gave a vintage touch. The designers said that they were not inspired by the Kenzo archives, but rather by the idea of Kenzo Takada arriving in Paris from abroad, as the couple has now done. So the American sporty street style had primary colors inspired by the American visual artist Ellsworth Kelly, who lived in Paris in the 1950s. There was not the faintest hint of Kenzo's ethnic wanderlust. But, providing the price is right, the new youthful vibe could re-register the Kenzo brand.

"Memory — memories of holidays, of Italy, of India," Giambattista Valli said backstage after a strong collection in which linear outfits mapped the body with squares of different fabrics and textures, using faded, digitalized prints of those past events. The effect was striking when a white furry top met a silvered band above a slim white skirt; it was sweet when a tailored coat had brocade squares. And it was stunning when a zebra pattern came in three textures — including a long-haired "rug" with a feathery effect.

Mr. Valli's shows have always been ornate but here the decoration was under control, whether it was simple clothes with armfuls of bangles like bent twigs or the silver slicing the midriff. Perhaps introducing a couture line, which he showed in the summer, has freed Mr. Valli to streamline his ritzy ready-to-wear. For here is a house fed by a line-up of young and stylish Europeans, from the Missoni sisters to the Dellal family — all involved in fashion and all Mr Valli's fans.

It was Mary Poppins versus Mary Pickford on the John Galliano runway, where the fluffy daintiness of the 1920s silent movie star was pitted against the sleek severity of the Edwardian nanny. It was not a bad metaphor for the post-Galliano collection, where Bill Gaytten gave the ruffled prettiness a spine of tailoring to create a lively and well-executed show.

First came "super nanny," with a prim bowler hat and black and white tailored outfits, often with pleated skirts and little white socks. Then the runway was handed over to Ms. Pickford, she who claimed that "adding sound to movies would be like putting lipstick on the Venus de Milo."

But she did not have the typical retro John Galliano look of bow lips and marcel-wave hair. She came over as a pretty miss, with her ruffled dresses in sweet colors. This was not really a face-off between the two styles because the looks were melded — not least with flower corsages for all.

Flowers were the subject atIssey Miyake but a stylized version of nature that went from bud to bloom by way of a high tech sound and light show. When the narrow laser beams were cast on the runway, it looked like the show by Yoshiyuki Miyamae, who has taken over as designer this season, was going to be hyper-graphic.

Instead it was an ode to nature — taking the slim line of a stem as the tailoring that opened the show. That developed into tight buds, not least with the bright yellow, pink or blue petal hats. The floral theme then came out fully with handkerchief-point chiffon ruffles bursting from the neckline. Mother Nature had only a supporting role in this collection, which was based on modern fabrics like nude-colored triacetate or, alternatively, traditional Kyoto dyeing techniques. The overall effect was of a garden with a few too many plants that needed trimming back to appreciate their beauty.

The Viktor & Rolf duo have always been attracted to dolls, dressing them on the runway like Russian dolls in layers of fabric or creating miniature outfits in doll houses for a London exhibition.

This season, living dolls were back on the runway: the models in their A-line dresses threaded with chiffon ribbons, walking through a backdrop of a gigantic pleated "skirt." On the top of that appeared the singing duo Brigitte, who provided the music.

The idea of oversize and straight-line design is not new to Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren. But these geometric clothes in pretty colors had a soft/hard modernity. Inserts of mesh in rounded satin jackets also were on trend. But if the designers think that oversized clothes with outsized details are still in fashion, they have not yet visited the American Girl emporiums, where little girls demand clothes as cute as those that dress the lifelike toys.

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