Kenzo autumn/winter 2010/11 collection

By Hilary Alexander, Fashion Director at Paris Fashion Week Published: 5:53PM GMT 08 March 2010

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As early 70s hits by Cat Stevens, Neil Young and Simon & Garfunkel, lulled the assembly in to a nostalgic, toe-tapping mood, Antonio Marras, the Sardinian-born engineer who heads Kenzo, played off the contrariety in between the bourgeois and the independent lifestyles, at the Paris prêt-à-porter deteriorate today.

The mood was underscored by the catwalk "landscape", stoical of swooping arches of bamboo and dusty grasses, interspersed with steel columns.

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The dual anxiety points, he said, were epitomized by the actresses, Marisa Berenson, and Maria Schneider, noted for her purpose conflicting Marlon Brando in "Last Tango in Paris".

The themes authorised Marras free rein to try his clarity of poetic, musical vintage, in dual key colour themes: terracotta/teal and violet/turquoise.

Ultra-long maxi-dresses, with flounced hems, came in a patchwork of prints, mostly detailed with bibs done of feathers, hair and beads, and ragged with wedge-soled sheepskin boots and wide-brimmed hats. Checked, belted, shirt-dresses were ragged with fluffy cardigans or geometric knits, with a big, tanned hide "mailbag" slung over one shoulder.

An "Annie Hall" see take on the masculine habit constructed mixed-check and nap jackets and jodhpurs, teamed with fox-trimmed vests, and charcoal, pinstripe all-in-ones.

Elsewhere, equestrian-look trouser suits were "broken up", with a floral smock, layered over the cropped britches, and underneath the small jacket.