The big guns of French pret-a-porter such as Chanel, Valentino and Alexander McQueen climaxed their respective collections for Spring-Summer 2012, offering styles that were minimal at first glance but maximum in fabrication, color and details. This is what French chic is all about, the balance of good attitude and good style.

Bon chic, bon genre is the eternal design ideal of Parisienne dressing. France remains the once and future capital of taste in trend and always-evolving seasonal styles. Chic is always proper, refined and never vulgar.

Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel showed 86 exits and gave everyone a look that fits her. The collection was age-appropriate and figure-friendly. It featured a dazzling array of flat sandals, lace espadrilles (yes, sensible shoes) and pearls everywhere, since the theme was paradise under the sea.

Fabrics were laminated to appear like mother-of-pearl, while skirt suits were lighter than airy dresses. In a palette of pastels—with sky blue as the newest surface that recalled faded denim—Lagerfeld showed anyone and everyone could be fashionable without being anorexic. The away-from-the-body volume makes Chanel available to ages 20 to 80, flattering to a size zero up to a full-size 14.

Designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli at Valentino have produced their best collection yet, the neutral colors, the signature red—and even black and white—were handled as if Mr. Garavani was still at the helm.

This team (they used to be designers of shoes and hats for Valentino) have found their footing, weaving couture technique into high-end ready-to-wear. Each dress was prettier than the next. It was simply a perfect collection sure to make a woman look beautiful and happy in the most labor-intensive flourishes.

Ruffles, re-embroidered lace, bows, see-through and other ultra-feminine methods reaffirmed the strengths of the Valentino brand.

Sarah Burton at Alexander McQueen preserved the standard of excellence and original fashion vision of the late designer which was at once dark and then beguiling. But bringing in her own evolution in subtle but powerful changes, Burton used mid-century silhouettes of the ruffled skirt suit in gold micro-pleated lamé.

Her reinvention of the LBD was refreshing and unique. Bias peplums, padded shoulders and ruffles empowered rather than restricted women of today.

Burton’s formal gowns were a tour de force of what McQueen stood for, singular and sensational with meticulous haute-couture finishing and sadomasochistic fetishes. This spread today celebrates what world-class dressing is really about.

Chanel, McQueen and Valentino are led by the best design minds and provide new options for dressing which are startling, stimulating and downright sexy.