PARIS, France — A lot of designers pay nebulous lip service to their "woman", often a famous friend, they insist they have in mind when they're creating their collections. With Christophe Lemaire, it's always been crystal clear that there is, in fact, a Lemaire woman, an ordinary flesh and blood creature whose life, loves, wants and needs have been reflected in the evolution of his designs.

It surely helps that he has always worked as one with his partner Sarah-Linh Tran. You can assume a strong autobiographical subtext, which added a layer of Freudian fascination to his latest collection. It was a twisted situation, and it introduced a whole new element of extremely appealing unpredictability into the Lemaire equation. “She’s drunk,” said Christophe, which was really his shorthand for saying his woman was looser, raunchier than before. “Everyone thinks we’re rigorous puritans,” he added, “but we can have fun.”

So there was colour —  a deep shade of raspberry fired up the sobriety of a long pleated dress — along with the casual dishabille of shoulders bared, fly-away scarf tops or a bias-ruched tunic over an asymmetric skirt. Lemaire's let-loose party girl also hit the catwalk in a cotton lurex tank dress with a low-slung flounce and a spaghetti-strap tank with a full pleated skirt (there was something almost balletic about that look).