There are ridiculous naysayers that will insist Maison Martin Margiela can never be the same without the man himself at the helm.The truth is at a label as mysterious as Margiela is, it’s always been difficult to see which lab-coated individual was responsible for what and that was always the intention. MMM sans Margiela has been through a "Reboot. Recharge. Rethink." phase, which felt like it had hit a eureka moment at its latest show.Rehashing old Margiela-isms wasn’t going to cut the mustard.Instead, the Maison forged ahead with its own take on masculine tailoring in faded pinstripes, rounded at the shoulders, elongated in the sleeve, and often with the cuffs acting as sculptural detailing. Hair tucked into straps in-built into practically every single silhouette was one practical take-away point.The visual decoration was powerful. Streaked with paint, injected with circular patent panels, trussed up in PVC, scribbled with luminous knit yarn embroidery and finally "defiled" by shouty typographic slogan gowns – this wasn’t MMM respectfully doing Margiela by textbook.This was MMM working away, conjuring up pieces that delight and perplex in equal measure, just as it always did.

www.maisonmartinmargiela.com

Makeup: Hannah Murray

Models pictured: Nastya Kusakina-@Kusakina_Nastya, Juliana Schurig-@juliana_schurig, Yumi Lambert-@YlaUr_Mal, Katia Selinger-@katiaselinger, Aline Weber-@alineweber_real

CHER! (exclamation mark required) sitting in the frow at the Gareth Pugh show was the celeb spotting of day two of Paris. Once we got over that excitement of the Goddess of Pop in our midst, we got down to taking in the stately and arched beauty of Pugh's collection. The more intimate salon setting of the Hotel Salomon de Rothschild meant we were able to see everything up close. What we saw were floor sleeping gowns cut high to those armour-like proportions that we are so used to seeing from Pugh. In snow white and with gold branches creeping their way up from the hemline, it felt like a gothic fairytale was revealing itself, especially when the gowns did eventually turn black and into periods of deep blue.

Turns out, Pugh was looking at a modern day girl power tribe called the Asgarda, who reside in the Carpathian mountains in the Ukraine, seeking autonomy from men and kicking ass whilst wearing t-shirts and billowing folk skirts. This set the silhouette blueprint for Pugh. What made those dramatic shapes seem tangible though were the army-blanket-esque fabrics, lending a papery quality, which toughened up the full skirts and curved proportions.

"We used lots of fabrics we had reams of in the studio. There's a make, do and mend thing which I quite like," remarked Pugh. "It goes back to Asgarda, creating and making your own outsider society." It was joyful to see DIY culture enter the fray again. The most potent sign that Pugh had returned to his trash couture roots, which thrilled London back in the day? Dresses made out of bin liners. Real ones, sourced from a pound shop in Stoke Newington. They looked like the opposite of rubbish, woven and cut into topiary-esque, haute couture formations. They got Cher's seal of approval.

The soundtrack at Dries Van Noten has always been emotionally stirring in the past but this time, it properly clued you into the show. 'Night and Day' and 'Cheek to Cheek' were classic oldies twisted into a mix. Exactly what Van Noten served up in this masterclass of a collection, teaching us all how the masculine and feminine can co-habit in pure harmony. Starting out with menswear elements such as straight-legged trousers (sometimes with an added kilt skirt), mannish Crombie coats, Savile Row fabrics and old world collegiate stripes. He then in his own words "invaded" them with feminine frou frou, derived from ice skating and ballroom dancing as the relationship between Fred and Ginger played its way into the collection. No dodgy sequins or spandex here. Instead, there was love in the air. "It’s about the love between men and women and in the end it becomes one!," explained Van Noten backstage.

Embroideries that were deliberately too bright, crystals were oversized and there was an abundance of ostrich feathers that swept their way in to adorn traditional menswear attire. Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers would collectively nod their heads at a ballroom ready ostrich feather skirt and top in contrasting candy pink and acid yellow as well as a more demure trouser suit with a paisley embroidered jacket. You could tell Dries had a riot of a time coming up with these articulate gender clashes and every time Van Noten commits himself to whatever contrast he is playing around with he manages to propose a modus operandi of dressing that is difficult to resist.The waves of "Bravo!" echoing in the stately L'Htel de Ville at the end proved that once again, he had a hit on his hands.