Stella McCartney's clothes reminiscent of 1970s Saint Tropez

10.00am - By SUSANNAH FRANKEL in Paris

The photographer David Bailey once famously said of the model Jean Shrimpton: "She was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen". At her show in Paris, the designer Stella McCartney used this as voiceover to introduce her most confident collection to date.

In fact, the clothes had more in common with Saint Tropez in the 1970s than Swinging London in the Sixties: picture a golden-skinned girl slipping on nothing more ostentatious than a white lawn cotton dress with tiered, ankle-length skirt and still stealing the limelight; or how about her boyfriend's white vest and a full, layered white muslin skirt.

The tailoring the designer is known for came this time in black, white and pale grey. Oversized mannish trousers looked great with an equally roomy waistcoat worn over a crisp cotton shirt or with a shrunken jacket that emphasized a torso slender by comparison.

Then, of course, out came the ultra-feminine lingerie inspired pieces that is also a signature by now. Petticoat dresses, camisole tops and even French knickers all made an appearance for women who would rather pay designer prices for such flights of fancy than trawl the market-stall rails to find the originals and buy them second hand.

Of course, McCartney is not the only designer to plunder vintage treasures for inspiration - everyone from John Galliano to Marc Jacobs is in on that particular act. McCartney is better placed for it than most, however. She is, after all, the quintessential West London girl and she herself wears it well.

For evening, crystal-trimmed dresses in pale aqua were more obviously attention-seeking although still part of a modern, and entirely relaxed mood. The Belgian designer Dries Van Noten celebrated his fiftieth fashion show late the previous evening with a collection paraded on probably the world's longest and largest banqueting table.

In a monolithic disused factory building in the suburbs of Paris guests filed in to take their seats and were served a chandelier-lit dinner before the lights went down and models took to the linen-clad table top in this season's designs. These were a typically opulent mix of floral and ethnically inspired embroideries and bold print, strewn across dirndl and pencil skirts, fluttering silk dresses and shirts and loosely structured but always feminine tailoring.

Colours were typically luscious. Complimenting signature neutrals were rose pink, fern green, duck egg blue and deep ruby as well as more sun-bleached shades from primrose to blush.

Van Noten is a fashion original: he refuses to advertise, relying instead entirely on the fact that he has a hugely loyal clientele. It is a formula that works well: his clothes are famously among the designer bestsellers at department stores the world over. The fashion show, according to Van Noten, is all that's needed to market his product. Suffice it to say that the message sent out by this most recent performance should do his business no harm.

More pictures: Dries Van Noten and Stella McCartney in Paris

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