“We all saw climate change this summer. We all saw fires around the world. And coming back with a show in September, thinking about whether our pants are going to be high-waisted or low-waisted—it seems a bit futile to me.” So said Olivier Rousteing before a show that that was in equal parts inspiring, infuriating and surprising. The biggest surprise was Cher, who popped up at the finale of this 100+ look show with Rousteing on the runway. She’d been hired to pitch a new handbag, and we’d seen her on a pre-show video, but had no sense she was in the stadium. Her ensemble was very If I Could Turn Back Time, and indeed, at 76, she looked convincingly like time was at her total command: quite amazing.

Valli found his palette in a collage of flower markets, buildings and landscapes in Asia, and Botticelli paintings, and rendered every exit in its own shade of joy. His emotions materialized in a look that evoked the glamour of the Roman aristocracy in the 1960s. Luxurious, louche and graphic, it was all about colors and trimmings, maxi-earrings, crystal bindis, turbans and big shades. “I always loved the idea of nomadic. But more than ever–and in my country first of all—it’s nice to have no limits; no borders. I want to see the horizon and get inspired by other cultures. Be curious, be nomadic,” he said. Valli demonstrated his hand-spun craftiness in a jacket and shorts covered in a trompe l’oeil print that mimicked bergère before the real deal manifested in various straw dresses woven like bergère.