From left: Paul Smith, Hermès, Dior Homme, Givenchy and Hugo at Hugo Boss

Nicolas Sarkozy’s idea for a Union of the Mediterranean may not have gathered much traction since he proposed it last summer, but designers this past weekend in Paris were busy making their own connections with the southern hemisphere in an Out of Africa-influenced season.

From John Galliano’s mob of rebel Lawrence-of-Arabias in safari jackets and Napoleons-in-Egypt sporting dusty desert frock coats to Givenchy’s bold Moorish-print shirts, tops and trousers, inspired, said designer Riccardo Tisci, by “north African warriors”, it was Marrakech-dude-meets-Parisian-dandy all the way (Jesus Luz, Madonna’s model boyfriend, strutting the Givenchy catwalk in a gold embroidered Moroccan top with a red tartan shirt tied around his waist, exemplified the trend). The net effect was relaxed and cool, though Givenchy’s gold sequin chain mail tops are probably better suited to Mykonos than a marketing meeting.

Meanwhile, Kris Van Assche, whose day job is creative director of Dior Homme, reimagined the djellaba, or side-open kurta, in technical finish cottons atop microfibre leggings or inner city rapper’s shorts. At Kenzo, designer Antonio Marras looked to French explorers in Africa, with palm prints and patchwork suede jackets in Saharan shades.

Sir Paul Smith was beach-ready with pastel suits and shirts with matching espadrilles, and even gothic minimalist Rick Owens, legendary for his dark palette, made a foray into sandy tones (the shoe of choice was a rugged sandal that combined running track soles and centurion straps). As for Hermès, where designer Véronique Nichanian would once finish each show with a score of models in gloriously bright silk shirts, this season the tops were cast in muddied, washed-out poplin, the house’s signature equestrian motifs barely readable.

And so it went, with a Lanvin finale shaded entirely in desert hues: though, admittedly, it followed an after-midnight collection of faille rocker-dandy redingotes and suits in cool tartans and club-tie stripes, it was the calf leather bomber jackets and trousers, cut forgivingly down the thigh and tapered at the ankle to create an updated 1930s silhouette, that seemed most on-trend. Indeed, the latter was indicative of a general contradiction going on in Paris between catwalk and context: just as budgets are clearly tight (with few houses leaving the traditional goodie bags on front row seats), so silhouettes are getting more expansive.

Wolfgang Joop, for example, who unveiled the debut men’s collection of his brand Wunderkind, offered lived-in luxe with great soft shouldered workers’ jackets and film-noir-villain double-breasted numbers. Dior Homme designer Van Assche showed billowing jackets, waistcoats and inside-outside coats that floated away from the torso, embellished with horsehair, a material normally used to define shoulders from the inside.

Dior’s chief executive Sidney Toledano explained the rationale: “We are cautious, but this is no time to go into a funk. We all know business is bad in the US and Japan, but in Europe we are doing okay and China continues to grow rapidly. We will open just as many square metres of retail space this year as we did in 2008.”

Clothes will, of course, be needed to fill the space; a concern, perhaps, also in Nicholas Ghesquiere’s mind at the fast-growing Balenciaga. There, 1980s-style tunics with soft, folded space-age necks, body straps, ergonomic and copper-hued sandals recalled the retro futurism of the early bling/clubbing years. Designer Bruno Pieters at Hugo by Hugo Boss also took up this theme, marrying high-tech sandals with Afghan drop-crotch pants and retro futurism in the form of LA valet parking jackets with a sci-fi finish.

Still, if a colour palette can predict the future, then business will be tough next spring. Besides all the beige and brown on display, the most dominant hue in Paris last week was deep red.