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

SECOND collections are perhaps even harder than the first when you’ve taken on a brand mantle – and especially when the first one was so well received, just as Julie de Libran’s was for Sonia Rykiel last season.

She’d managed to put confidence and a point of view into a house who’d experienced an unsettled time of late with an accidental swinging doors approach to creative directors. She brought sass and sensuality and she brought her Louis Vuitton and Prada background.

Today’s offering in turn felt a little disappointing by comparison. Flares and fur gilets had that rock touch but one we’ve become used to seeing now. Elsewhere coats had a Sixties sensibility, there was a penchant for silver trousers and long knee-high socks and a series of vintage-y velvet gowns to make for the finale.