Valentino steals the show in Paris with Alessandro Michele at the helm | Paris Fashion Week

Valentino was the hottest ticket of this Paris Fashion Week, and the show had the occasion to match.

A huge floor was covered in smashed mirror tiles and glittered like a ballroom after an earthquake. Five hundred armchairs and a few glowing lamps lay under a shroud of white sheets, as if a magnificent house had been closed for a long winter. The House of Valentino shook off the cobwebs for a new era and hit the dance floor.

This was the return to the top of fashion for Alessandro Michele, one of fashion’s biggest figures, a baseball-cap-and-beads-wearing maverick, a designer who quotes Heidegger and goes on vacation with Harry Styles.

Michele made a name for himself and led Gucci to stardom, tripling annual sales there to $10 billion (£7.5 billion) during his tenure and turning the company into the most exciting fashion brand in five years. Valentino and Gucci have long vied for bragging rights in the Italian fashion industry, and Michele’s signing with Valentino not only brings the energy of its protagonist back to the fashion center, but also heightens the tension of this rivalry. In other words, if Jurgen Klopp were to take over Manchester United, this Valentino show would be the equivalent of his first game at Old Trafford.

Crazy, hippie-bearded Michele is an intriguing choice for this house. Its founder, Valentino Garavani, who left the company 16 years ago at age 76, held court over a bygone era of glamour, with mahogany skin and a circle of lap dogs. He spent his holidays with Jackie Onassis.

Michele took the jewel-toned Roman sophistication of Valentino and infused it with the same magpie spirit that he used to elevate Gucci. There were crisp, ladylike jackets, but also crystal nose rings. Romantic tiered dresses and kitschy pageboy jackets. Haute bourgeoisie ladies of the seventies in chiffon trains and Generation Z boys with tattoos and pearls.

The models’ faces were veiled, dramatically shaded under picture hats, or decorated with jewels strung from molar to molar so that they rested on the lower lip. Adult handbags were held with the chain straps hanging messily, like carrying a teddy bear on one arm.

It shouldn’t work, but it did. Beneath the riotous chaos, Michele conjures a very specific world: a sophisticated, voluptuous iconoclast who has an enormous ego but tons of charm. The guide here was based on his success at Gucci, but the references were new and specific to Valentino.

With every layer, every silhouette was precise. Every detail had a backstory. The nose and mouth are decorated, Michele said, because fashion is about the senses. He took archival references from the 1970s – “Valentino’s golden age” – along with nuggets from the 1960s and early 1980s. The matchstick red, Valentino’s house color, glowed brightly.

Valentino is about a fifth the size of Gucci, but Kering, which owns a 30% stake, has ambitions to expand it to compete with fashion’s big names. To do this, Valentino needs to grab people’s attention, and that’s where Michele comes into play. His crazy clothes aren’t for everyone, but he makes fashion that captures the imagination because his aesthetic is as much about styling as it is about garments.

This show was full of ideas and tricks worn by a much larger audience than Valentino price tags can afford: turbans, polka dot gloves, white lace tights with ankle socks, John Lennon glasses with caps, tiny black ribbon bows with polka dots, braids everywhere like butterflies on lavender.

Michele, one of fashion’s all-time greats, energized the final days of runway season. He described this collection as “an enchantment of the world” along with “the sacredness of a breast full of milk… the pursuit of love-seeking fireflies… the touch of organza ruffles… the wonder of libraries.” Wearing a red plaid shirt and jeans, he told reporters after the Show: “My work comes from my gut.” Clearly, it’s about me. But I have a beautiful new home.”