This is, simply, how couture is done. At Christian Dior on Monday, John Galliano paid tribute to René Gruau, the house's famed illustrator in the ‘40s and ‘50s. And the collection was a vibrant sketchbook brought to life: extravagant volumes, mountains of tulle, gestural hats, rich colors—not to mention entire flourishes of feather.
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Perhaps the greatest achievement of all was the collection's ability to communicate a sense of real fun. Said Style.com's Tim Blanks: "You left the show with the feeling that everyone involved had an absolute ball, created the haute-est fashion for the sheer, pleasurable hell of it."
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Galliano tipped his hat to Dior's institutional past—but also paid homage to couture's golden days, a time of opulence and extravagance, a time when models actually modeled on the runway instead of plowing through like they were about to miss the bus. Said Blanks of the collection: "The most dramatic effects were chiaroscuro—the interplay of light and shade, duplicating the wash of Gruau's watercolors and the shadows of Irving Penn's classic couture photography."
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John Galliano said this collection was his most technically challenging yet. Eyebrows looked straight from the sketchpad, with large swooshes of pink and blue, and waists were corseted by alligator belts. It was a sea of romantic bows, white gloves, and plunging necklines.
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This season at Givenchy, Riccardo Tisci was inspired by the Japanese Butoh performances of the late Kazuo Ohno—and Japanese toy robots. Philip Treacy created massive headpieces for the collection that looked fit for a Space Age ninja ready for blast-off. Each dress in the 10-piece collection consisted of delicate lace and appliqué forms, many of which were avian-inspired. ( One piece in the collection reportedly required 2,000 hours of cutting and 4,000 hours of sewing.) Tones were cream-colored with jolts of color—orange and purple and bright pink. The result was a samurai-inspired collection that was simultaneously Old World and futuristic.
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Meet Valentino's trinity: Pier, Maria, and the Holy Ghost. The design team, Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli, presented a collection of sheer nudes and creams that left audiences with an unbearable lightness of being. Sheer fabrics, long hemlines, and, of course, the line's signature ruffle. One look, seemingly made of fibrous tubes, moved like a jellyfish down the runway. Wrote The New York Times' Cathy Horyn of the collection: "Their couture is also youthful in that it's less heavy in construction and attitude, and this season they seem more in possession of that distinction in Paris."
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All that glitters is…Armani Prive's collection. Giorgio Armani was reportedly inspired by the glimmer of gemstones for his Spring 2011 collection, which featured metallic fabrics that seemed to gleam from within. Shapes were distinctly structural: shoulders were strong and rounded, skirts featured a shell-like peplum, and tulip shapes blossomed from hips. Several dresses featured smooth, Richard Serra-like sculptural forms. A highlight of the collection were white saucer hats from famed milliner Philip Treacy, which came down the runway like an attack of the UFOs. The collection was futuristic in that distinctly mod kind of way—recalling both Now, Voyager and Pierre Cardin's comeback collection, presented last season. And the crowd wasn't too shabby, either: Sophia Loren, Jodie Foster, and Olivia Wilde crowded into the front row.
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Paging all Academy Award nominees! The dresses at Elie Saab seemed ripe for the plucking by Oscar stylists. The collection was romantic—pale purples, rose pinks, and embroidered flowers floated down the runway. There was even one shimmering gold gown that seemed perfect for Angelina Jolie. And then came the "wow factor": bright red dresses trimmed with lace, which showed off décolletage and leg both with low necklines and high splits.
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If anyone can light up Paris, it's Karl Lagerfeld. At Chanel on Tuesday, the Emperor of Fashion presented a glowing collection that featured glittering gossamer, beaded jackets, disco-ball skinnies, and metallic tweeds. And still, there persisted a heavy dose of Parisian cool: stick-legged jeans, pointy shoulders, cropped sleeves. His inspiration was artist Marie Laurencin, who designed Diaghilev's 1923 ballet Les Biches. And several forms on Chanel's runway were highly balletic: full skirts, pink bows, and perhaps most surprisingly, black ballet flats. According to critic Tim Blanks, Lagerfeld described his collection: "I was sick of all those Eiffel Towers, sick of all those violent colors!"
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In a nod to couture shows of decades past, Karl Lagerfeld descended the stairs with his many women to thank the crowd and pose for pictures. He stood hand-in-hand with legendary model Kristen McMenamy.
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Even during couture, some designers stage shows to show the clothes. Others, like Jean Paul Gaultier, stage a spectacle. At his runway show on Wednesday, Gaultier gave us a little bit of everything: tailored trench coats, corseted dresses, crochet sweaters, glorious fringe dresses, dog collars, and, of course, sky-high mohawks. And Gaultier named each look that came down the catwalk—everything from "Anarchy in the U.K." to "The Clash" to "La Goulue."
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And, as always, there was a little bit of surprise on the Gaultier runway. A model in a black evening dress and a mask—who looked fit for a Parisian "Eyes Wide Shut" Party—flashed a little bit of leg on the end of the runway. Cathy Horyn called it "easily his most satisfying show in years."
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The finale at Gaultier was distinctively French: Psykko Tycco, a real cancan dancer from the Crazy Horse, gave the audience an eyeful by lifting up her large skirt, doing a massive split-kick, and then collapsing into a pile of tulle. As Gaultier described his collection in the program notes, this could be described as one thing and one thing only: "Punk Cancan."
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