PARIS — What sets Paris apart from fashion capitals like New York or Milan is that here creativity trumps commercialism more often than the other way around. Several designers have upheld that standard mightily in their fall 2007 ready-to-wear collections.

At Issey Miyake, the newly ensconced creative director, Dai Fujiwara, presented a mixed bag of ideas. There were pleats, indeed. Several examples of the label’s signature fabric were shown in sculptural shapes of iridescent organdy. One red top in puffed, ballooning curves showed off some skin on the model, yet looked relaxed in its pairing with slim-cut denim.

The jeans here are not angling to do battle in the high-end pocket wars. These fabrics stand out with bleaching, doodles, and linear striations. Some looked like just the right thing for men and women whose budgets allow for extreme creativity. Three styles of jeans were designed with the A-POC concept (“A Piece of Cloth”), in which garments are drawn on and made from one piece of fabric. Issey Miyake introduced the idea in 1998, and now Mr. Fujiwara is emphasizing it. In a way, it’s the fashion industry’s version of single-estate coffee beans: Would more than one be so bad? No, but it’s less of a challenge.

Sheer leggings in black and red introduced alluring textures, but the best of the lot were the large, light jackets and wraps made in gradations of colors that represented digital images. A series of woven reversible tapestries looked better left on the loom, but not every trick’s a winner. This collection offered more to think about than most, and for sophisticated, highly expressive individuals, it provided the wearable art that has made this label a success for decades. The less said about the orange postman outfits the better.

The same goes for the skirts at Marithé & Francois Girbaud that looked like they were made of a dozen khaki whoopee cushions sewn in a circle. Woe to the gal who sits down in that one.

Still, the collection included a number of fitted coats that could be chic in even the chilliest climes. One standout was a fitted long coat with lapels layered to look like waves of wool. Several coats had puffed up sleeves with straps of epaulets that seemed to wrap each shoulder like a present. Heavy gauge sweaters with elongated arms and slouchy draping around the shoulders had a sexy edge. Much of what was on the runway — which in fact was a wide, tiered platform dotted with cardboard chairs — had a rock ‘n’ roll toughness and an aggressive take on design.

Yet one of the models in the show was not just a model, but a dancer wearing red pointe shoes, a red velvet dress, and sheer black stockings. During her turn, she walked on pointe and waved her arms and bowed. She came back later to lead the final march of all the models. Trouble is, she didn’t quite connect to any larger theme: Her dress and her movements seemed entirely unconnected to the rest of the collection. But it was a welcome surprise. And why not? It’s Paris. You can get away with nuttiness here. After the whoopee cushions, a dancer makes perfect sense.

Monday included a high point for several editors who found designer Martin Margiela to be taking a significant tack in the direction of the upper body. “One of the big statements was the emphasis on the shoulder,” the senior market editor at Elle magazine, Joann Pailey, said. “He’s on the forefront of where fashion is going and it trickles down.”

The look creates Space-Age linear shapes at the shoulders of dresses and tops in thin, fine fabric. Will it trickle down to Park Avenue? Scoff at the return of Reagan-era shoulder pads, but stranger things have happened. The Judy Jetson version may not catch on, but with the right proportions and shaping, there may be a new silhouette in the making.