Brigitte Trogneux Macron may be working the oversized jacket this week in Paris, but it???s a tricky trend, particularly when you???re petite.No such problems at the Armani Prive show where the jackets were uniformly snug, cut to contour the body???s natural body shape as closely as possible and ending at the hips.

The opening look generally serves as a manifesto for what followed and unlike most political ones, it was reliable.Pale blue, single breasted, one buttoned, with flap fronted pockets, worn with slim black trousers and a nude, black beaded camisole, it was a happy confederation of slim curves that would look good on many women for years to come.

After that the jackets came thick and fast.Well they would.This is Armani.But these were particularly easy ??? some stripped of all lapels and collars, some with scoop necks, almost like bodices, others with jewel clasps, hand painted flowers or shimmering with beads.One, black, plunged to the navel, and embellished with what looked, from a distance like shoals of blue tadpoles, exploded at the waist into an exuberance of feathers.The case for jackets was feistily made here.So was one for sheer black seamed tights with teeny buttons down the front.And sparkling pixie beanies.The jackets are probaby the best bet.

Trousers were slim, silk-satin, sharply creased ??? think Cate Blanchett collecting an award at one of those daytime ceremonies to which it must be very hard to know what to wear until Armani calls.

Actually Blanchett was MIA from the front row.Instead we had Naomi Watts, Kate Winslett (immaculate and glamorous in grand-diva style in black duchesse satin and diamonds) and Sophia Loren.I made my way past them and the thronging photographers to my seat, trying to see what work, if any, they may have succumbed to.(I???m starting to think that reporting on the state of the female Hollywood face as it morphs from merely beautiful to improbable may have become a duty of sort).But if they are staging any facial interventions, they???re the invisible kind.

The most fabulous couture gowns from the season so far

The generational intersection at Armani is often remarked on, but worth noting all the same.???Age diversity??? on the catwalks has become fashionable but Armani has been happy not just to dress older women but have them prominently seated at his shows for years.

Back on the catwalk, Armani seemed less overtly exercised by the need to look experimental than he has at some of his previous Prive shows, and it was all the better for it.Even the theatrically outsized pod-capes looked comfortable, for that kind of thing, This was a confident, established approach to evening wear (it mostlly is about what to wear to a big event).There was a black beaded tulle gown for every shape and size and gauzy, gently undulate column suspended from a twinkling lace one-shoulder strap on which perched what first appeared to be a giant black moth was sensational.

Designer fact file | Giorgio ArmaniThe most fabulous front row looks from couture shows past