Paris Haute Couture: Dior spring/summer 2012

Bill Gaytten's Dior couture collection was great: is he the man for the top job after all?

BY Lisa Armstrong

Could it be that Dior's nervy, indecision of last year was really an example of old fashioned measured strategy? If so, it may be paying off. The collection that acting creative director Bill Gaytten just showed was a class act by any standards, and particularly so when it followed on the wobbly heels of Versace's Vegas showgirls and Alexis Mabille's riff on the Smurfs earlier in the day.

If Gaytten's 40 outfits lacked obvious Oscar fodder, then so much the better. These were clothes for real clients: gorgeous slim-line chiffon and organza dresses in damson, beige or black, with pleated, stand-away, "crumb-catcher" bodices and embroidery, subtle beading and lattice-work pin-tucking. The full-skirted versions, with their shawl-collared, waist cinching organza jackets were showier, but a no less wearable option come the cocktail hour.

The occasional drop-shouldered, half-sleeved jacket in black or taupe croc-stamped leather, worn with leather, elbow length gloves and patent or tulle court shoes with Lucite heels toughened things up nicely and a scarlet and white houndstooth pencil skirt with peplumed organza blouse could be just the required update for Cameron Diaz, who watched from the front row.

While Gaytten's first couture outing last summer looked strained, this was confident and polished, with plenty of challenges for the ateliers to sink their needles into - and pointed references to the golden days of Dior. The Bar jacket, but a little exaggerated and all of it sheer and ethereal as a dream - which is when half the inspiration came to him, ante-bellum ruffled, strapless ballgowns included.

"It's meant to be x-ray Dior, " he said afterward. "All the structure of iconic Dior, thanks to lots of fittings, but all of it see-through." Clearly this was no rush job. The pintucking on a single skirt took three days."I haven't slept for weeks," he reported cheerfully. "It's been a lot of waking up at 3 am."
He must be on good vitamins because he seemed remarkably relaxed. Surely it's time to close the deal on what is proving the longest job application in history? "No comment."
But are they going to give him the gig?" No comment." Is he working on the next couture collection? "I'm working on the next five".

Meanwhile, outside a chic French blogger worked her new Gaytten-era Dior bag - utterly plain and unembellished, it's the most modern item they've produced in years.

Paris Haute Couture: Versace spring/summer 2012

Eight year wait over as Versace make a triumphant return to Paris Haute Couture.

That smash hit collaboration between Versace and H&M last winter is still having reverberations. The influx of cash must have been handy and the affirmation that Versace is still a relevant name to the public at large will have been welcome to a house that hasn't always been surefooted in its product strategy. But most of all "it made me realise i had to come back to Paris to show that Versace is a couture house" said Donatella Versace backstage this morning.

It has been almost eight years since Versace last performed on the couture high wire, although the atelier remained open to private clients throughout. Returning to the spotlight now might seem a perverse act - but only if you haven't been parsing the business pages diligently.

Those luxury brands who are sticking to their guns and doing what luxury is meant to do - coddle, mollify and reassure the insulated super-rich - are thriving . "The world needs glamour," added Versace, "and I missed couture".

And she's well placed to provide it; just 15 looks, but each a corseted, beaded, embroidered, sculpted monument to what Versace called "glamorous warriors," although with her accent, it sounded at first as though she'd done a brief for glamorous lawyers.

In many ways it was classic, well trodden Versace territory, but the limited colour palatte - steel grey, fizzing sulphurous lemon, tangerine and one solitary bustier dress in gold leather that was laser cut into delicate lace tracery and worn by a fierce looking Arizona Muse - made it look tough and modern. Perspex panniers on the orange dress brought to mind Christopher Kane - no bad thing.

But did i say modern? Only up to a point. Tightly bound and shod in the highest, spikiest, backless gaiter-boots, the models were very movement-challenged, especially when it came to marching down that photogentic flight of gold metal stairs. By the end they'd evolved a sideways crab-step of dubious elegance. But come Oscars - and that's surely where these are heading - these dresses just have to look good straight on. Job done.

Paris Haute Couture: Chanel spring/summer 2012

Karl Lagerfeld looked to the skies for Chanel's couture show in Paris this morning, with an elaborate show staged in a Chanel-branded aeroplane.

BY Lisa Armstrong

France may have lost its triple A credit status, but the country has a new luxury national airline, albeit one that's currently piloted by a designer and staffed by models. Don't bank on it ever taking off on time.

It took builders five days to construct the Air Chanel plane - set, deep in the bowels of the Grand Palais. While other designers are scaling back drastically, withdrawing altogether or exploring the "show-sentation", with varying degrees of success, Chanel's finances cascade into its couture.

They'll be tweeting about that plane for days, along with the Alice Dellal-inspired, gravity defying hair - which allows Karl Lagerfeld to concentrate on largely gimmick free clothes. Not that Lagerfeld can't do jokes, but Chanel is one house to which the couture clients still flock for wardrobe staples - in as far as any couture clients ever flock.

I walked in behind one: a slim woman in sparkling Chanel tweeds, garnished with a tan coloured crocodile Birkin and a headscarf. She doesn't want hilarity with her couture, she wants classics, which is largely what this flight's menu offered.

"I didn't want to make it too literal, " said Lagerfeld backstage. "If you look at what air hostesses really wore back in the '60s, it wasn't that great".

The references may have been light, but short-sleeved, slim tweed dresses, just above the knee, block-coloured and with rouleau necklines, were imbued with the aerodynamic neatness of old airline uniforms - an impression reinforced by the strappy, mid- height glittery court shoes.

Along with all the other houses, Chanel is clearly no longer in the business of selling much couture daywear. The main focus was on cocktail and full-blown evening dresses. These were lovely, as Chanel's couture eveningwear invariably is - and somewhat familiar. That means bead smothered bodices and the "evening" suit, a full-length slim skirt, in filmy chiffons or sequined boucle with a matching cardigan-jacket that's emerging as a favourite nighttime look in Paris this week.

Blue - the colour of sky - was the favourite hue, in all its shades from chalcedony to Pan-Am and midnight. Bags were replaced by ubiquitous pockets - some of them built-into the drop waistbands.

As Coco realised back in the '30s, pockets are key to achieving a slouchy, laid back look. And planes, as far as Lagerfeld is concerned, are a handy aid to relaxing. "I love flying. It's the one time I can escape. I don't have to talk; everyone around me is watching screens. I can be alone. It's perfect". Assume he is not flying Easyjet.