Creative Director Alessandro Dell’Acqua presented a fabulous Rochas Spring 2019 RTW collection that contrasted lushly fabricated animal-like jacquards with block-color silk knockouts. We started on safari, with jacquard leopard and zebra patterns in often apparently mundane silhouettes twisted to difference by twerks of proportion. Then, we shifted to neutral, a period in which a Chernobyl yellow T-shirt dress was a fascinating interplay of basic silhouette and eye-scorching colorway. A gray-on-black zebra jacquard coat that melted into white-and-black silk was a fascinating garment to deconstruct.

The wickedly precise black period was elevated by paillette on silk zebra patterning. A series of colored closing looks saw ostrich feather insinuated into crushed same-color dresses. There was a repetition of extraneous apron details on the left leg—but not the right—that was an oddly inelegant but trend-led detail in a collection that was otherwise the opposite, and all the better for it.

Go backstage at the Rochas Spring 2019 fashion show, taking place in the beautiful Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris.