Even when it wasn’t about the houndstooth, it was about the houndstooth at the premiere of Giorgio Armani’s Fall couture line last week. Sophisticated, peaked-shoulder jackets were everywhere, displayed against patterns of black and white starbursts, chevrons, and cross-hatched diamond patterns—with some more inventive monochromatic patterns cropping up from time to time.

Black and white is an unsurprising palette choice for a couture collection, but the houndstooth-inspired prints were a bold focus for Armani. When it failed on the runway, it did so spectacularly, with a few noisy ensembles buzzing like television static, but the most elegant pieces had a Holly Golightly breeziness that couture fashion only rarely deigns to acknowledge.

Swishy satin and velvet dhoti pants and A-line jackets gave the collection some fullness, but what Armani giveth Armani taketh away, with busts and shoulders hemmed in to the bone.

Some color did make its way into the collection, but the pinks and blues were so light as to get lost among the whites at times. If any textile was a surprising star, it was the black velvet: here beneath a hurricane scarf that could’ve fit three models, there as a sleek evening gown with a neckline plunging to ankle-depth. When a tiered, black velvet ballgown appeared, it was clear which fabric had stolen the show.