"Ballgowns, à la Versace." That was how Donatella Versace, with a hint of a wink, described her Atelier Versace couture collection, shown on Sunday in Paris.

It is an apt description of designs that play with the dream dresses of couture's heritage, but add a hefty dose of Versace's trademark tough and sexy house code.

Couture shows – the highest echelon of fashion, with made-to-measure frocks, private clients and six-figure prices – always highlight the craft of fashion as well as the fantasy.

That was the case here. The gown that prompted Versace's quip featured a bodice of embroidered tiny crystals custom made by Swarovski for the house and metres of creamy-brown duchesse satin backed with crinoline to give volume. Some might take issue with a split cut so high it revealed the model's pants – but no one could argue with the workmanship.

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Versace's place on the couture schedule adds a sexuality not usually associated with this most proper of the Paris fashion weeks. The designer also seeks to challenge a world still using 50s techniques, where a dress takes weeks to make and an atelier's petite mains, or seamstresses, slave over sequins.

The collection here, Versace said, was about "the tailoring from 50s couture – but I'm not going to do 50s couture". Instead, she – admirably – stuck to her house guns.

As well as the duchesse satin, showing the influence of Charles James, there were rounded sleeves that nodded to the decade's master, Cristóbal Balenciaga. But being Versace, they featured on a jacket with a gold buckle on the shoulder, worn only with a pair of ankle-strapped stilettos.

The theme of deconstructed tailoring continued. The bodices of gowns were fused with some designs that featured a trouser on one leg, and a short on the other.

One ruched navy-blue gown, with consummately crafted folds on the bodice, was half red-carpet goddess dress, half palazzo pant, while a jumpsuit mixed a slim-fit leg with a wider one.

While not all of these were wholly successful – a palazzo pant/gown hybrid is a tricky look to pull off even on the red carpet, the natural habitat of these dresses – the experimentation and confidence to modernise has to be applauded.

Versace is enjoying a boost – with sales up 17.2% in 2013. A deal was announced in February that saw investment of £119m from the Blackstone group, a New York-based fund.

This will let Versace expand its retail presence. Stores in Brazil and Russia – newer markets for the brand, that counts the US as its strongest area of growth – are planned for this year, with 200 stores globally by 2016. An IPO is the long-term plan. Speaking in February, the chief executive officer, Gian Giacomo Ferraris, said he aims to make this transition by 2020.

Versace's show was the highlight of the first day of Paris's couture shows. With an argument always raging about the relevance of this super-luxe area of fashion – where a made-to-order dress can cost about £100,000 – its territory is being encroached upon by the resort collections, the cheaper and more commercial side of ready-to-wear.

Miu Miu, Miuccia Prada's second line, showed a resort collection in Paris on the Saturday night, influenced by the flower-power prints of the 60s.

The thinking is that events like these – showcasing the most off-the-peg side of a brand's output, rather than their most exclusive – could become more and more common.

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