Given that rumours about Marc Jacobs' departure from Louis Vuitton were already rife, it was entirely in character to have mischievously worked that to a dramatic advantage in Paris this morning. The announcement that this show was to be his last at the house came as the audience rose to a standing ovation.

What we saw was a greatest hits collection - a set comprising the carousel, the Night Porter lifts, escalators, a fountain, hotel room doors, the crowd welcomed by French maids and seated by railway baggage handlers. The breadth of it was vast. 

And scope of the clothes no less so. Opening to the tolling of a bell and the strains of Chopin's Funeral March (Jacobs laid it on with the most fabulous trowel he could find) came Edie Campbell dressed in a sheer bodysuit emblazoned with glittering Stephen Sprouse graffiti, arms aloft like the Marchesa di Casati on one of her rather glamorous walks.

The collection was dedicated to showgirls - to the showgirl in each of us, Jacobs said in his shownotes, where he referenced a veritable army of divas from Kate Moss to Rei Kawakubo. 

But the models, in their vast plumes of black feathers looked less burlesque than they did keening Victorian mourners. And why not, seeing as Jacobs has always dabbled in the darkest of humours?

In that vein, there were stonewash jeans, androgynous ly fitted like 501s, worn under the most intricately beaded Poiret-style shift dresses, covered in paillettes and with feathered epaulettes, falling to an asymmetrical tasselled point.

There were cropped and boxy jackets too, brocaded with sequins and oversized rosettes and corsages - in homage perhaps to the aforementioned Comme des Garçons designer. Some of these were cinched with beaded waspies bagged on the hips with panniers and plumed at the back with more feathers.

Then the were the collectors' items: jersey and t-shirt dresses which were by far the most casual pieces of the collection, but which were emblazoned with '14' for the season of Jacobs' departure.

During his time at Louis Vuitton this designer has redefined the notion of luxury, of must-haves, of inspirations, reference points and modern tastes more broadly. Not only is this a show to remember for its spectacular showmanship, it is important for its cultural significance.

'Connecting with something on a superficial level is as honest as connecting with it on an intellectual level,' Jacobs said in his shownotes.

But there was never anything superficial about it; these shows have always ranked highly  in the annals of fashion moments, and we witnessed yet another one in Paris today.