Paris’ Karim Bonnet — who started out modifying second-hand clothes into what he called a “post-punk” look — sent his models down an open-air catwalk outside the capital’s Gare de l’Est, to the in tears sound of the pipes.

One fashion model wore a bodice of edible-looking white pearls across her back, her breasts naked under a draped shirt of sheer lace, and tufts of appalling pink tulle adorning the toes of her balance-defying shoes.

There was a bricolage, pick-and-mix think to Bonnet’s dresses made of thick, rug-like, multicolored hush-up, cut from old jute sacks or brown paper bags, or the utilitarian-looking chains use for shoulder straps.

Brooke Taylor — who among his real-life partner Nana Aganovich forms the London-based duo Aganovich — told AFP their spring/summer 2011 appear is “a puzzle, which lets you unite and accessorise clothes, collars and sleeves.”

But here the tone was sober, austere even, with clean black-and-white lines, only broken up by the infrequent oil-stain like red print, enthused by poppies by the US photographer Irving Penn.

The design duo set up a rusty anchor and piled-up ship chains in the centre of a distinctive Marais courtyard to showcase their latest look.