Out here at the Paris menswear shows, I asked a buyer from a major London store: how will the Brexit vote affect their business? He breathed heavily. Their margins on new season deliveries have already been obliterated by the collapse of the pound. Those pieces were ordered a few months ago but still not paid for yet. How it affects the volume and scope of they’re about to order for next season? Who knows.

There are so many repercussions to the fashion industry, many of them affecting the new generation. Young British designers often rely on European factories to produce their clothing at an affordable cost. Will new import duties now make this prohibitive? What about the young graduates who move freely to Milan or Paris to take jobs in the design studios at major luxury houses?

This came to mind at Givenchy. I can think of two British graduates whose work has had a major impact on the Givenchy signature of loud graphics and sportswear cuts. Graduates like them are at every luxury house, their work unsung yet often of profound affect. It’s the sort of job where they turn up at short notice and then stay for years. With borders closed, will future graduates be denied such opportunities, and will their absence lessen creativity at conglomerates?

Givenchy could already do with more free-flowing ideas. It’s spring/summer 17 show was an exercise in product that looked too factory-made, not helped by the women’s couture tagged on to the end, all the work of the hand. On the men’s, dollar prints were blurred and mashed to create an effect like camouflage. Pyramids and eye prints were meant to suggest serenity. Pinstriped tailoring was banal. What happened to the tension that used to infuse the label?

There’s been some strong work the past couple of days, especially the Fornasetti collaboration at Comme des Garçons Homme Plus, with those circular black and white faces used like large polka dots on suits. Also excellent were the shirts and sweaters with illustrations by Noah Lyon at Comme’s subsidiary label SHIRT. At Acne Studios, the waterproofs were fresh and desirable, particularly a blue zip-up mac with a bonded plaid lining. Meanwhile Kenzo snapped sharp into focus with work inspired by New York club kids, though it made me think of another site of hedonism. In their pastel nylon zip-ups, loose print shirts worn open and logo T-shirts, many of the models looked directly transposed from Glastonbury, still awake at 10am, on their way to find another party. Hey! Take me with you!

Dior Homme was better than usual, one of creative director Kris Van Assche’s best at the brand. It had a fashion attitude in its use of punk harnessing, and neat ideas in its tailored blousons. Over at Balmain, its recently announced acquisition by a Qatari private investment fund — already owners of Valentino and Anya Hindmarch — led to a fresh optimism. A few minutes before his audacious show, I asked creative director Olivier Rousteing how long he has known about the deal. “We were in the process for six months, a year,” he said. Rousteing is one of those designer names often linked to other vacant designer jobs, but he says he is happy where he is. “It has been a long journey but I’m really happy and looking forward to a new chapter in my life and the Balmain life.”

Behind us was a clutch of models in full pale denim looks: denim jacket over denim kaftan worn with denim shorts over what looked like denim jeggings. That’s a jean morphed with a legging. I’ve always admired anyone brave enough to do double denim, let alone quadruple. This long show pushed the embellishment for which it is known beyond previously known bounds — one model attempted nonchalance in a metallic poncho decorated with huge blue stones.

But what really sung were the more humble knit pieces, though no less bold intheir strong bands of block colour: orange, yellow, red, blue and black. A knit sweater, a buttonless long knit cardigan, a knit T-shirt, blanket knit trackpants. Yes, I did just type those words. Obviously the same colour blocking came in bolero jackets that were beaded and jewelled and encrusted. Really, the whole thing was a ball.

Anyway wanting a textbook example of misguided decisions should look no further than Berluti, which has drifted far from being a house of eccentric but enlightened creativity. Its previous creative director, Alessandro Sartori, had cultivated an air of appropriateness at this storied Parisian shoemaker-turned-clothier. He has headed back to his old home of Zegna, and in his absence owners LVMH decided to throw a pool party. With no actual pool.

In a large garden scattered with inflatable chairs and flamingoes, various models were given various tasks, announced over speakers. First was a skipping rope competition, undertaken to Hot Stuff by Donna Summer. One of the models won the skipping, though it is not clear if this was actually for his skipping skills or just scripted reality. As he was given his trophy, they played We Are The Champions by Queen.

Editors on their inflatable unicorns gave each other that look: what are we doing with our lives? The actual collection was shoved in some beach huts on the periphery. Berluti clothing can easily go for four figures. Near the beach huts, some people played with water pistols, their jets of water straying close to the rails. No one cared.

But wait, there’s the model dumbbell competition. And a hula-hoop round. Berluti dumbbells and skipping ropes will apparently be available to buy — just what nobody ever wanted. No word on a Berluti hula-hoop. It was the total opposite of an on-message. Please, whether there’s a named creative director or not, be a brand that does work of worth, then have pride in the results of that labour. Otherwise, don’t bother.