Whether they were embracing the maximalist comeback or sticking to their minimal ethos, brands seen at showrooms across Paris went deeper in their dedication to materials and craftsmanship.

PARIS — If runway shows displayed flashy accessories pushing quiet luxury out once and for all, brands presenting their new collections at showrooms here during Paris Fashion Week offered a polarized approach, splitting between those embracing the maximalist comeback and the ones that have always centered their aesthetic on purity of lines and function.

Yet both categories shared a deeper dedication to materials and craftsmanship, often revisiting their signature styles with tweaks in design or elevating their quality.

Take Roger Vivier’s seasonal showcase, where creative director Gherardo Felloni reinterpreted the brand’s heritage in a more-is-more direction via the Belle Vivier style reimagined with a chunkier spoon heel for daytime or the house’s archival butterfly motif turned into a hard-to-miss, embroidered embellishment popping up on satin pointed mules and slingbacks for nighttime.

Ditto for Christian Louboutin’s show, where the shoe guru’s famous La Pigalle pump first introduced in 2004 was reinvented in one-of-a-kind versions by the brand’s atelier, including one with golden feathered wings, the Macbetha design covered in dark crystals and featuring an added metal cage evoking skeletal forms — and the scaled-up version that served as a prop for Dita Von Teese’s spectacular performance.

But even in the intimacy of showrooms, there were plenty of compelling fresh takes on archival pieces, new designs balancing form and function, and incursions of much-needed playfulness that deserve attention.

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