Compared with the colour blast that next spring promises, Alberta Ferretti’s sun-bleached chiffons could easily seem tame. It’s brave too, in a season of thigh-scrapers, to claim the mid-calf territory. Up close however, those dresses looked refined and far from dowdy, thanks to carefully askew necklines and the tantalising promise of a glimpse of flesh. Not that there will ever be wardrobe malfunctions — the dresses are too well engineered and the layers too thought out. After all, Ferretti wears what she designs. Her stock in trade is filmy lightness, a corner of the ether that many designers are trying to conquer. Whether knotted and draped, or embroidered with twisting curlicues of tiny frills, the workmanship speaks softly but emphatically. The layering of pebble on top of putty pink and lavender was very pretty, particularly a taupe back-wrap pinafore.

As for that length, sooner or later it will stage a comeback. In the meantime, Ferretti had some minis and dresses that hovered round the knee. What she didn’t have, along with almost all her fellow designers, was the red carpet dresses that used to punctuate these shows, as the bridal gowns still do at couture. This probably doesn’t mean that designers are breaking free from Hollywood’s stranglehold but that they’re trying to find a more cost-effective way to do it than showing ten extravagant dresses that will never get bought, let alone worn.

Times recommends

• The grim reality of life as an air stewardess
• 50 of the world's best design blogs
• Video: Georgia Jagger on fashion and her mum's clothes