Lanvin and Paul Smith Menswear shows: Cool stars and stripes conquer Paris catwalks

Fashion editor, Alexander Fury, reports on menswear shows from the front row of Paris Fashion Week

In through the out door … Alber Elbaz and Lucas Ossendrijver’s menswear designs for Lanvin at Paris Fashion Week (EPA)

Two free-standing doors – glossy black, with white lintel and jambs – took centre stage at the Lanvin show. At Paul Smith, it was a cluster of terracotta-potted cacti.

Were these fragments of reality invading the elegant, artificial echelons of fashion? Or just distractions to bamboozle and detract attention from pallid and uninteresting clothes on offer? The latter is often a question cynically asked when designers clutter up a catwalk with set-piece mumbo-jumbo, especially in the irritable bowels of the final day of a given season - say, spring/summer 2015 menswear - when most people just want to forgot the clothes and get home.

Lanvin makes clothes you can forget about: which is intended as a compliment. After a winter outing that skewed awkwardly towards the attenuated figures of cool Parisian jeunes, this collection was on surer footing. The models may have had nose-rings, lip piercings and prominent bones, but it was punk in a soft-soled loafer.

Loose threads in silk and leather bristled from the seams of biker jackets or trousers, giving a tremblante delicacy. The silhouette was slouchy, sometimes to the point of slack. One pair of trousers slumped dangerously low, puddling in a kicked flare around the model's feet. That volume was weightless, techy coats curving away from the body in cocoon shapes, or the sleeves and back of a tailored coat replaced with a gossamer voile.