Elie Saab Autumn/Winter 2012-13 Ready-To-Wear Paris

ELIE SAAB is known for his red carpet creations . This season, though, you might just be a little more hard-pushed to find one – the Lebanese fashion designer concentrated more on daywear in sombre and sober shades. It was stiff and structured and quite the about turn from someone from whom we usually expect lots and lots of sparkle.

To begin with he went smart with skirtsuits in grey and panels of black, belted and with peplums  and then came skater skirts beneath shaggy coats, again in grey and then in black. Trousers and a shirt and a pencil skirt all reminded us that these were very much daywear looks, and worn as they were with satchels across the body meant this was enhanced.

But then Saab began to step it up a notch , trousers came with ornate and elaborate tops that twisted and turned and wrapped and unravelled around the torso so that they billowed with a tail, of sorts, behind them. A quick segue back into neutral territory , cue a  simple and softly-shaped coat, a short and a jacket and trousers combination  and then we got into cobweb dresses that went from burgundy to black, panels of tangles on full-length gowns or on svelte short numbers.