Giorgio Armani took his exclusive Privé line into a brave new world at the Paris haute couture shows with a collection of beautifully sculpted, mirrored organza, high-shine plastic trousers and flying-saucer style hats.
Leaving behind his more classically designed red-carpet gowns, a series of dresses in abstract shapes and unusual fabrics closed the show.
With Armani customers Jodie Foster and Sophia Loren in the front row, the designer showed off a dazzling asymmetric dress in blue, featuring a cut-away panel which revealed an underlay of sparkling discs.
Another, in ruby red, had a Bardot-style neckline and a dramatic sculpted skirt which clung to the model like a second skin.
But this show was about much more than gowns. The Italian couturier sent out a futuristic spectacle of side-skimming skirts and shift-dresses - many of which fell just below the knee and were worn with metallic-effect leggings.
Unusually for a couture collection, trousers were a key theme - most were slim-cut and teamed with cropped or tuxedo-style jackets cut from organza and plastic.
This collection was for a couture shopper with avant-garde taste in eveningwear and was likely to leave the average Armani customer a little bewildered.
