The Best Looks From Paris Fashion Week Spring 2016

In fashion, there's Main Street and High Street. And then there's the road that Miuccia Prada takes...paves, really. Call it the road less traveled, the off-the-beaten-path, whatever. The point is, the lady will never bow to convention—it's just not a word in her vocabulary. And the industry is the richer for it. Nothing revolutionary happened on Miu Miu's Spring's runway, just more of the same thought-provoking, different-angle style, starting with fall-worthy coats in signature Miuccia graphics and grandpa cardigans seen both as wonderful intarsia knits with a diamond motif (and then reworked as leather jackets).

Mad-cap styling saw a delicious pile-on of fur stoles worn cross-body over slim printed dresses that hit just below the knee—so flattering. These were worn over buttoned-up shirts and ultra feminine strappy heels, a Miu Miu must, in fun colors or lace-up boots in brilliant patterns and shades.

Lingerie made a splash, but not the coy, sexy kind. No. So obvious. Miu Miu's long ruffled covered up looks (saved from prudishness by sheerness) made all the other inner wear looks seen so far feel like an '80s MTV video cliche. If you're going to do lingerie for ready-to-wear, this is a new way to do it. These dresses were worn over and under shirts, tailored coats, leather jackets, ladylike suits, sweaters, you name it.

Even though Miuccia Prada never quite spells it out, there is always a narrative to her collections, a story to who her woman is. We know she's smart and a little oddball (in the best way). Spring's Miu Miu girl is definitely a lady, but it's almost like we're seeing her in the morning, running out to grab the newspaper. She's just thrown on a coat and whatever shoes she could grab—in some cases ballet slippers—before flitting in and out of her front door quickly. Or maybe she's a quirky aristocrat cut from the Helena Bonham Carter ilk.

The Miu Miu lineup seemed to distill all the news from the Spring collections— without looking like anyone else. There was femininity, sheerness, lingerie and most importantly for the health of fashion as we head into some uncertain financial times, bankable-y wearable clothes.

Fast, forward, thought-provoking, like nothing anyone else is doing. That's Nicolas Ghesquière's calling card. As the weary fashion crowd sat within the beautiful Frank Gehry-designed Fondation Louis Vuitton, the atmosphere and Spring Vuitton collection served as a pick-me-up. The clothes fit in perfectly with the masculine-feminine DNA of the building's architecture, mixing tough chic leather, stitching and grommets with cool silhouettes for the modern woman.

Netted t-shirts morphed into swishy gowns detailed in sequins in delicate floral motifs and trimmed in industrial laces. There were so many skirts—wrapped and layered in terrific details of shiny chevron lacing or clusters of beads. These were worn with louche, slouchy sweaters with insets of leather lacing or weaving, sometimes pulled and undone in just the right spots.

When Ghesquière did show pants, they were tapered and parachute-like in their sweeping abstract patterns and with double-zipped utilitarianism. Here, sportiness showed up via an athletic tank trimmed with feathers, netted tanks with fringe or tiny shorts he paired with ruffled cropped capes.

This was the motorcycle jacket's moment, though, and if ever there was a season to own more than one, this is it. Stripes of every, well, stripe cut across logo-printed leather jackets, some more trim and ladylike, some more classically tailored, some ready for the a ride on a hog, one even in a spray-painted tie-dye. These were all played in contrast to bubble skirts and poet blouses in romantic pure white.

Accessories completed the modern-meets-moto attitude. Girls walked in chunky platform sandals and all wearing reworked leather motorcycle gloves, some with feathered detail. Bags included oversized pouches, carried like totes, tiny logo boxes, waffle duffles and top-handle day bags in bright colors that picked up on the clothes.

For Valentino's Spring collection, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli went deep into their inspiration and came back with something stunningly beautiful, if not without its controversy. The design duo cited "tribal Africa" in their show notes, along with a lot of other extremely heady things, but that note against the models' cornrows ruffled more than a few feathers. There's a fine line between reference and appropriation, and in a bid to sound esoteric, perhaps they came off insensitive and perhaps they made a poor styling choice. Some could also choose to see it as a celebration of all that is beautiful in African craft.

Politics aside, the collection was a remarkable feat of Valentino's atelier, bringing to tangible light Chiuri and Piccioli's depth of print, embroidery, embellishment, movement, tailoring and layering. There was a lot of surface treatment and movement, but it came together in wearable pieces, like long-sleeved tops and swingy minis or printed dresses and maxis.

Prints featured either optic color blocks or various jungle life scenes with elephants, cheetahs, giraffes and the like, all done in long gowns usually anchored at the neck with a necklace or choker. Embroidered, notched and fringed leather jackets, vests and bustiers topped many of the gowns.

Parades of lacy gowns and minis came out in desert colors, cinched at the waist and sweeping dramatically as the girls walked. Eventually, they evolved into beautiful looks with white beading—like markings of the Kikuyu of Kenya, an inspiration point—at the bust and white feathered and totemic jewelry made in collaboration with Alessandro Gaggio.

The finale gowns pushed Chiuri and Piccioli into another realm of design, closer to couture. And one can only imagine the exhaustion of their atelier. One gown after another came out in sheer chiffon covered in intricate beaded designs that recall their African inspirational roots. What's needed now, is the right girl at the right time saying the right thing to wear one of these extraordinarily crafted pieces. And maybe for next season, some sensitivity training.

You can take the girl out of Australia, but you can't take the Australia out of the girl. Kym Ellery showed her Spring 2016 collection in Paris today, but was inspired by Christo and Jeanne-Claude's 1969 project entitled 'Wrapped Coast"—where one million square feet of fabric and 35 miles of rope shrouded 2.4 kilometres of the Sydney coastline. That reference showed itself through oversized rivet and loose tie details, a color palette of mostly navy and white and a play of proportion and scale.

Ellery's well-loved concepts are woven through her latest—fresh poplins, dramatic flares, high contrast black and white—with the addition of drawstrings and metal embellishments. Ladies who love Ellery's voluminous trousers will be pleased to see a rendition done up with even more leg room.

A subtle nautical vibe imbues dresses that offer drama, but don't trade in on wearability. The simple black dress get a very cool reworking.

Bringing the off-the-shoulder standouts of the brand's Resort collection into Spring, here the silhouette has sleeves with tie detailing above the elbow and then seem to loosely fall away from the arm.

Ellery is not one for over-the-top embellishment, here offered subtle sequins for evening, paired with a skirt with a deconstructed peplum, paired with beach-ready slides as opposed to anything too restrictive. All the better to dance at the beach—or on the Paris streets.

—Kerry Pieri