McCartney's sharp tailoring brings glittering success

Stella McCartney kicked off yesterday's Paris collections with a show that was a personal best and one of the week's most beautiful. Her play on volume created tight mesh tops with padded satin kimono sleeves and mini dress shirts that were fitted at the waist and hips but loose in the body.

Her trademark tailoring was there in sharp Prince of Wales check suits and jackets decorated with glittering flight-path map prints.

But it was McCartney's attention to detail that marked her out as a designer in her stride. Shirts featured hand-embroidered bibs; tops and dresses were covered in tiny slashes; silk ribbons that decorated waistbands had been burnt and charred; whilst chiffon was twisted and hand-knitted for a herringbone effect. Fine gold chains, woven along the shoulders of a sporty vest and then left to dangle, or covering skirts and tops in short lengths, glowed against the palette of vanilla, oyster and peach.

After a Milan Fashion Week of chainmail and 1960s Futurism, this is Paco Rabanne's moment. The original master of space-age chic sent out his signature chainmail as a trim on beige crepe tops, wove it with leather for a bikini, or mixed it with sparkly palettes for a dress or a belt.

Even his chunky knits were mixed with chains. After Rabanne's futuristic shine had given a metallic sheen to safari shorts, suits and tiny sunray pleated skirts, he sent out a burst of sunflower yellow, fuschia pink and bright orange dresses inspired by kimonos.

Another individualist enjoying a good season is Vivienne Westwood. Bomber jackets with elongated knitted waistbands, and tailored jackets with lapels that detach to become a sash, had all the genius of Westwood's pattern-cutting but none of the trickiness. The decadence of Westwood's historical references was tempered with a gritty industrial palette and discrete prints; tiny floral sprigs and checks.

From Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton came the new Louis Vuitton monogram as designed by the artist Takashi Murakami. Like Japanese cartoon characters, the logo's new cyber creatures were printed onto bags that were worn in a parade of zip-up satin dresses.

Jacobs' sexed up collection featured satin slip dresses, patent leather coats with jewelled fastenings, negligee tops and plenty of rubber: polka dot-printed pencil skirts and trenchcoats or dresses covered with swimming-cap flowers.