PARIS, France — The connection between the flirtatious Carven girl of recent years and the label's more modest, mid-century heritage may never align again, what with the youthful mould cast by Guillaume Henry and followed through by current design duo Adrien Caillaudaud and Alexis Martial. For Spring/Summer 2017, the pair paid homage to the label's beginnings nonetheless, imagining their girls scrounging around the archives (prefaced by a tale of an heiress and a castle) to find the retro scarf silks or frothy curtain fabrics that added lightness and bubbly texture to their trademark silhouettes of short skirts and kick-and-flare cargo pants.

Though their Carven customer is indeed young, she need not suffer fashion schizophrenia, and this collection sent forth a barrage of erratic messages: some via their bower bird backstory, some not. But amongst the trendy styling pieces cut in tinted plastics or patched with thistles, there’s no doubt she’ll find a great party dress — so why not spin a tall tale with more of those instead?