Scent of a woman came before sight of her at the spring and summer shows of Gucci and Emporio Armani on Wednesday, as both designers took the opportunity to show the audience advertisements for their latest perfumes.

A model presents a creation by Italian designer Frida Giannini for Gucci during the Spring/Summer 2008 collections of the Milan ready-to-wear fashion shows.[AFP]

Both designers also kept hemlines in their collections short and heels high -- but there the similarities ended.

Giorgio Armani used jades, pale blues, violets and grays for his young Emporio Armani collection, with splashes of silver and sequins.

He took the loose, tied-at-the-knee trousers from his grown-up Giorgio Armani line show on Monday and puffed them out with a curt cuff instead, in what the designer called "an upturned tulip."

Armani -- whose new perfume Diamonds is promoted by pop singer Beyonce -- put sparkle in the collection with ice blue and silver striped hooded tops over short silk skirts. Models carried huge silver laminated bags soft enough to fold in half and necklaces were a double loop of shiny stones and black.

The designer kept jackets short and tailored or stretched out a tuxedo model to let brief black shorts wink below the hem for a cheeky evening suit.

And he used black and white checkerboard prints for short full skirts teamed with tailored jackets or a halter neck top tied loosely to gap at the back.

GUCCI WITH COLOUR

Frida Giannini used a black and white base for the Gucci show but liberally splashed it with bright yellow and bubblegum pink in an echo of graphic art.

"It's nice to see a lot of color coming out of this house," said Ken Downing, fashion director at department store Neiman Marcus in New York, after the show.

A bright yellow short tailored jacket was teamed with a brief, full and flirty checkerboard print skirt, while a mini biker jacket had an abstract floral design on the back in mustard, cream and black.

Chevrons of black and white patent were mixed with yellow or pink for 50s style full skirts, and the bright colors turned up in checks as well.

Giannini ran her abstract and big flower designs through a variety of fabrics, from stiff cotton to silk to taffeta, to give different moods to the same prints.

And she boldly used block bubblegum pink for a short, strapless dress that was sculpted around the body, to then whisk the color into chiffon for an entirely different, flowing look.

Trousers took a new line of loosely fitted at the hip and thigh, to be drainpipe tight from the knee down.

Shoes -- following a trend this week -- were high and gold, lace-up or patent, while belts either played the cummerbund or were finger-width to offset layered skirts.

Giannini's swimwear -- a rare sight despite the theme of summer -- was simple and one shouldered in sheer black.

And the finale for the designer, whose perfume advertising featured director David Lynch, closed with a film curtain black taffeta dress whose full skirt nearly filled the spotlight.