ROCHAS AUTUMN/WINTER 2015-16 READY-TO-WEAR PARIS FASHION WEEK

ALESSANDRO DELL’ACQUA’s third collection for Rochas (he took over from Marco Zanini at the end of 2013) this evening marked the house’s 90th anniversary, which meant it was time to dig back into the archives and bring back out some of Marcel Rochas’s favourites and update them.

So out came a swallow print to nod to the 1934 collection dedicated to birds. It took flight on coats and dresses – beaded and black. There was the classic Chantilly lace to make everything Rochas-frothy, pretty and feminine – but this in fact was used more sparingly than we’ve seen before. Instead there was an emphasis on coats with a wartime posterity about them – the Thirties was the decade being brought back to life here. Which made it all rather restrained for a birthday collection – though we had punches of egg-yolk yellow to contrast the shades of brown and last season’s utility belts were given an upgrade to thick, waist-cinching belts. And for fans of those now signature bejewelled shoes, they came encrusted at the heel this time.