Stella McCartney showed in the garden of the British Ambassador's residence in Paris, just along from the Élysée Palace, and it rained. Guests found out how badly high heels cope with soft turf, and staff made everyone close their umbrellas. It was chaotic, and I think the chaos suited the clothes. The message was ocean conservation, with David Attenborough's warm but warning commentary played over the top. It is a heavy subject, and the show handled it lightly.

The collection takes a stroll through McCartney's archive: silhouettes, prints and techniques from earlier seasons, brought back. The loose, cool tailoring with technical drawstring details at the waist is a stone-cold classic, and I was glad to see it again. Knit skirts, dresses and bustiers are built up from heaped whorls of furled panels, and they look like coral. Transparent fish wire holds up the crinoline hems and the oyster-like sculptural shapes. I love when sustainability shows up as craft instead of a slogan, and this is that.

My favorite look is the least dressy one. A mixed-wash denim trucker jacket sits over basketball shorts made from shirting cotton, with built-up nineties skater trainers. It goes straight back to the North Kensington cool-girl origins of the brand, the Notting Hill clubs of a certain era. About a quarter of the show has a jacket, blazer or trench and one in seven looks has denim. I think that is the point of an archive show. You can remember the girl who started it.

Then the show turns toward evening, with Grecian flourishes, sculpted peplums and architectural bodices in washed-out pastels. Ruffles and peplums are the most common detail, on about three in ten looks. Put them next to the ocean commentary and it all starts to look like Daryl Hannah in Splash. I only found three looks with ocean imagery, an orca knit and two dolphin tees, and I think that restraint is right. A message lands better when the clothes are good and the print is small.