Faced with a madding crowd of debuts this season, Carven director of design Mark Howard Thomas felt the fashion set might want a breather — at the brand’s historic home on the Champs-Elysées, where he staged his runway debut.

Nods to interiors and clothes worn in the intimate sphere abounded in his sophomore collection, perpetuating the leitmotif of building a house into a home. There was even a detachable ruffled basque on jackets and coats that Thomas compared in jest to a pelmet during a preview. It was applied to attractive sporty iterations on the Esperanto jacket, an archival design brought back to life last season.

Dresses and tops with graphic folds and eyelet edges were reminiscent of heirloom napkins. Crisp poplin shirts and silk blouses were given an undone quality by lingerie touches while tailored trousers had their formality taken down a notch by elasticated waistbands and ankles.

Thomas also referenced orchids, in a nod to the variety named after Madame Carven and developed in 1993 with French expert Marcel Lecoufle by the founder. They came as prints, jacquards and laser-cut motifs but also lent their curves to the structure of dresses and high-waisted trousers that fluted upward and curled open like the flower.

In a season where runways are rife with options that work equally well on both sides of the front door, Thomas’ solid second offering might well get a return invite into clients’ wardrobes.