McQueen names show in honour of muse Isabella Blow

Alexander McQueen named his show in Paris late last night La Dame Bleue after Isabella Blow who committed suicide in May. Blow – who was suffering from ovarian cancer – is, of course, credited with discovering this designer.

She also discovered the milliner Philip Treacy, responsible for the extraordinary hats she was famous for wearing, and indeed for the suitably pyrotechnic head-pieces on display on this occasion ranging from gleaming metal fencing masks to elaborate taxidermy concoctions.

Accompanying the invitation to the show was a poster sized artist's illustration of Blow riding on a chariot drawn by winged horses. McQueen and Blow, often described as his muse, shared a fascination with ornithology and a winged theme dominated throughout. This ran the gamut from the backdrop of the catwalk itself – a huge metal structure lit white and red and echoing the shape of the outstretched wings of a bird of prey – to the clothes many of which were hand-finished with bright feathers or printed to look like the wings of a bird of paradise.

Given the over-riding reference point – the collection notes said the show was inspired by "extreme glamour – pure Isabella territory" – it should come as no surprise that this saw a return to the pagoda-shouldered silhouette that McQueen was known for during his early days working as a designer and just the type of hour-glass shape that Blow always wore.

A snakeskin dress that clung to every curve was, equally, the mirror image of one she actually owned, designed by McQueen during his tenure as creative director at Givenchy. It came this time in rose.

As well as Blow's own wardrobe – a large part of it designed for her, of course, by McQueen but also by Junya Watanabe whose work got a nod as well – the designer referenced Yves Saint Laurent's scandalous black dress. The one that famously left a single breast exposed – in this it was sheathed in black lace.

A 1970s Japanese influence was also at play in the form of lacquer red belts that cinched everything from Prince Of Wales check tailoring – a time-honoured McQueen signature – to liquid satin cocktail dresses at the waist.

Whichever way one chooses to look at it, these were not clothes ever destined to be worn by shrinking violets.

Instead, the most exotic and indeed erotic not to mention fashion-knowledgeable maven sprang to mind. And that, of course, was precisely the point. Given that so many of the collections this spring/summer season have seemed rather more demure and certainly less structured than this one, it was a sight for sore eyes.

McQueen came out to take his bows accompanied by Treacy and wearing his clan tartan.