Paris Fashion Week hasn't been without delight and whimsy - Issey Miyake's floating dresses and bouncing models were a smile-a-minute - but in the city of heritage houses, an eight day show schedule risks feeling a little weighty.
Enter the Noir Kei Ninomiya runway spectacle, which brought a twinkle to the eye of even the most jaded fashion critics.
This is only Ninomiya's second proper show - previously to that, Kei Ninomiya previewed his collections rather subtly, in the Comme des Garçons showroom - making it all the more incredible that his second ever runway is now the one on everyone's lips.
Punk inspired and heavily insistent on the colour black as a throughline, the label's pieces are often tough and militant.
Not so this season, which turned out to be a literal breath of fresh air.
Ninomiya follows the Japanese tradition of avant garde, which can read as pretty madcap fashion, (the label is part of the Comme des Garcons family, and shows on the same day), using clothes as a means of exploring ideas, rather than thinking of how it will sit on the commute each day... so attendees knew to expect something surreal.
But this was unexpectedly soft, with pillowy cloud-shape dresses, alongside fern headpieces, and what one editor described as 'creatures from the green lagoon' frocks. ('Big dress energy', but take it into the great outdoors.)
The delightful spectacle had showgoers gasping, smiling, laughing, and clearly enjoying themselves.
But don't let the avant garde catwalk put you off the label, although cloud dresses are pretty out there, Noir Noir Kei Ninomiya shirts and dresses are totally RTW, often lending themselves to being styled 3 - 5 ways, thanks to the belt-straps that have become a bit of a signature.
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