It was as if Rei Kawakubo wanted us to follow her down the rabbit hole—or was it a mousetrap? Her models, in wigs with shoulder-length locks, were topped off with cartoonish black-leather bunny and rounded mouse ears.

Against a backdrop of grass-green walls and on a noticeably smaller runway, the show had more of an intimate vibe than usual. (And naturally, the not-so-central Paris space in the 12th arrondissement was filled to the brim—all of it fashion eye-candy.) Kawakubo added pops of bubblegum pastels to textured, patterned suit jackets, some in rich brocades, some with dramatically dropped lapels and still others fringed with tassels. Each look was completed with matching or contrasting pants in varying degrees of volume. The models were surely not complaining about anything being too tight.

And just when the show made a transition into gray, black, white, and silver suiting, Kawakubo ended on a bright note. Fluorescent sweaters lit up her final statements—as if to say, these clothes are for characters.