Elie Saab Autumn/Winter 2011-12

WHATEVER Elie Saab's woman is up to next season, she's going to look chic, refined and ladylike in the process. The third to last show on the last day of Paris Fashion Week belonged to the Lebanese designer whose penchant for red carpet dresses was kept relatively restrained today. It was a show that, fittingly, seemed to tick a good handful of trend boxes we've been accustomed to seeing over the last four weeks.

So, we had fur in there (on shoulders and lapels of neat black daywear ensembles), and we had red (on slit-to-the-thigh dresses and belted svelte dresses beaded and draped, twisted and pleated), and a mix-and-match of textures – which we saw at every fashion capital and at almost every show. When it wasn't red, it was burgundy – again tapping into the season's trends for boozy shades – and when it wasn't neat and polished for going to work, it was glamorous and polished for a twirl down that red carpet.

We had the usual suspects in gowns of silver sequin beads and others in cascades of berry shades – they came strapless and with a shimmer over the hip, something which was repeated in a much less dramatic way on the pencil skirts we had seen earlier in the collection.