Jean
Paul
Gaultier

Everyday Couture

Every season has its frisson of sensationalism: two seasons ago it was the riot police that closed down the Armani show; this time it was the photographers who threw down the gauntlet and boycotted Jean-Paul Gaultier's show. Under the pretext that too little space had been allotted to them, the photography contingent staged a walk-out and set up a picket-line outside the Musée des Arts Décoratifs where the show was held.

Jean-Paul opened his show in conjugal Benetton ad-style with model couples of different ethnicities walking down the catwalk in matching outfits. That started the clock ticking in reverse millenial countdown, and it did not stop until 2000 seconds had passed.

In 33 minutes and 33 seconds, Gaultier showed what you can do when you give ordinary clothes a couture spin. Argyle, jacquard and twin-set sweaters, and tartan kilts were faithfully reproduced in sparkling sequins while motorcycle jackets were gilded with sequins and furs. Why bother with a ballgown in traditional satin and tulle when you could do one in white down and line it with lace? An ordinary pleated skirt made extra-long and belted right below the bust instantly became an empire-waist gown. Rectangle pieces of shearling and mink were patched together into scarves and skirts, and nothing was more practical than the taffeta stoles that ended in evening purses or long gloves with change purses sewn into them.

Instead of the traditional bride, Gaultier closed the show on a sentimental note: golden-aged newlyweds under a canopy of white down.

Clara Young

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Girl Power

The Mistress of Parisian Chic went a wee bit zany this season, declaring in her program that "good taste needs a little bad taste". De la Fressange threw some Scary Spice and Boy George into her melting-pot of classic jackets, animal prints, Indian saris, skinny pants, poufy skirts and top-hats.

The opening was sweet as molasses with a winter bride dressed in a straight, tight-fitting white wool pullover-dress and little flower kiddies in matching outfits. By reversing the traditional order of events, Inès set the tone for a collection that was all about having fun and breaking the rules. While Aretha sang about R.E.S.P.E.C.T., the models humorously strutted their stuff and played with props like shopping-carts and umbrellas.

Inès' effortlessly well-dressed look was represented in casual basics like impeccable suits and shirts, knee-length drawstring linen skirts, slim low-cut pants with wide belts and a gray flannel knee-length dress with Mao collar. But the conservative jackets were paired with pink sari wrap-skirts or flared pants in the same material. Sexy bustiers in reversed lambskin, and a fitted pin-stripe suit with curved panels in the back worn with ankle-length pants set up the frivolous finale: an enormous leopard-print Pompadour skirt with a tight silk shirt in fuchsia.

And why this abundant wackiness? Maybe it's hormones. When Inès de la Fressange took her bow in a tight-fitting red knit dress, it was clear that she soon will become a mother.

Johanna Lenander

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The Straight and Narrow

The rule is that if a formula works, stick with it. Whether Spanish designer Cristina Ortiz's clean, linear silhouette works or not, she is forever true to it. In her show for Lanvin, the succession of square jackets, rectangular skirts and oblong coats and dresses was hypnotic in its sameness. In fresh colors like aqua, vanilla, white and fluorescent orange, the clothes, which also included narrow trousers, sleeveless shells and tee-shirts, were neither loose nor tight, but simply fell straight down the body. There wasn't an ounce of fluidity and almost no adornment. Hats and jewelry were absent. Despite the monotony, the collection had a refreshing simplicity. The geometry of the forms was picked up in the slit seams of the garment or discrete origami-like folds at the bottom of a coat or the front of a tunic. Or in barely perceptible embroidery at a neckline, on a seam, or as a more pronounced angular shape shooting across an evening dress.

Lee Yanowitch

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Boho Belgian Bluster

Belgian designer Véronique Branquinho burst on the scene two seasons ago with long pleated skirts over pants. This season she delivered the same brand of bedraggled chic, with turtlenecks and corduroys betraying what are clearly bohemian intellectual antecedents. Our gripe with Branquinho, however, is that very little of her clothing looks especially designed: just ordinary togs that the designer styled together in an eccentric way and sent out onto the runway.

Ample skirts -- often hitched on the side with cloth buckles -- were worn over woolly leggings. Rounding out the rest of the wardrobe were long, wide trousers, garden-variety turtleneck and sweater sets, some white cotton antique-looking blouses, sweatshirt-like tops with ribbed hems, wool coats with ribbed knit cuffs and military coats in black velvet or leather. All of it wearable, of course; heck, we're probably already wearing it.

Clara Young

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