British designer John Galliano marked his 10th year at the creative helm of iconic fashion house Dior on Monday with an extravagant show in Versailles Palace inspired by impressionist and modern painters.
The Gibraltar-born designer paid tribute to both Dior and his Spanish roots in a 30-minute show where models, including Gisele Bundchen, Naomi Campbell, Amber Valetta and Linda Evangelista, strutted in dresses inspired by painters ranging from Cocteau and Picasso to Renoir, Degas and Goya.
John Galliano attempted to silence those who say he has betrayed Christian Dior's spirit as he produced a stark knee-length white satin dress with a tight waist adorned with a big rose and narrow sleeves elegantly hugging the tip of the shoulders.
Actress Kate Hudson applauded heartily as the last evening creation, a one-strap embroidered emerald bustier dress was presented before John Galliano proudly marched on stage in a bullfighter suit, with his long hair hanging loose.
After John Galliano, Lacroix treated the fashion glitterati with a show true to his southern roots.
Inside Palais de Tokyo, the contemporary art museum that faces the Eiffel Tower, models looked like dishevelled gypsies with giant pearl necklaces and embroidered high-heeled shoes.
Lacroix played with volumes, with a green silk cloak topping a black sheath with a silver-studded belt, or a bronze-coloured flounced jacket with feathers or colourful embroidered coats exposing sculpted yellow or purple gowns.
The audience went into raptures over Australian model Gemma Ward's Madonna-like wedding gown in golden fabric with flowers, and the vase with metallic roses on her head.
Birds of paradise braved Chanel's rain-soaked runway on Tuesday as German designer Karl Lagerfeld gave wings to his models to reinvent the style that has made the Paris haute couture house an icon of chic.
Torrential rain delayed the presentation of Chanel's latest fall/winter collection, set in a former royal park overlooking the Seine river, until a tarpaulin was fixed above the runway and hundreds of black Chanel umbrellas were given to the guests.
Hooded models with thick black sunglasses huddled along a gravel runway in the park outside Paris, sporting classic three-quarter-length coats and dresses with the new adornment of feathers and sequins on the arms and the side.
Avant-garde film maker David Lynch sat in the front row watching models in knee-length deep blue satin dresses fringed with black sequins running on each side from the hem to the armpit and from the shoulders to the hands.
For the evening, Lagerfeld dressed the Chanel woman in a long black sequin dress hemmed with white feathers.
"Haute couture has to be the ultimate in luxury or else a luxurious pret-a-porter would suffice. If it is not truly exceptional it has no reason to be," the pony-tailed Lagerfeld told the army of reporters surrounding him after the show.
"Haute couture is a distinct culture and this is the reason why there are so few couture houses around," he added, paying tribute to the "petites mains" who spend hours sewing beads and sequins on to haute couture dresses costing upwards of $10,000.
Feathers and fur also featured prominently in the fall/winter collection of Christian Lacroix, who celebrates 20 years at the helm of a house influenced by the bull fights and Provencal traditions the French designer grew up with.
Women dressed like maharajahs, Snow White's Prince Charming, chamberlains or the tsarevitch graced the runway of Jean-Paul Gaultier who treated fashion royalty with a fairytale haute couture show on Wednesday.
Revisiting the cross-gender theme which has made his name, the French designer dressed female models with embroidered tail coats, stretch trousers and seven-league boots, and hung crowns made of hair nonchalantly on the sides of their heads.
The white-tiled ballroom of Gaultier's headquarters was engulfed in blackness to the sound of Someday My Prince Will Come as projectors revealed a female prince languishing with love in a gold and red velvet throne at the end of the runway.
Saudi princesses and Spanish film maker Pedro Almodovar, who used Gaultier's extravagant costumes in his 1993 media satire Kika, smiled appreciatively from the front row as model Lily Cole presented a dark blue velvet coat with multi-coloured flowers embroidered on the hems and protruding epaulettes.
Gaultier's Prince of the Night sported a sleeveless black satin gown slit to the thigh with a satin army coat and cap, while Prince Hereditary wore a black strapless bustier over a white poplin shirt and tuxedo trousers.
Gaultier accessorised a green and burgundy outfit with a white fur wrap with fox heads, covered an ivory-coloured bustier with a floor-length see-through black lace gown and made his bride an Indian groom dressed in a white maharajah suit.
Gaultier's presentation concluded a three-day marathon of haute couture shows marked by heavy rain and anniversaries - those of Christian Dior and the French fashion house's charismatic designer Galliano in a lavish Versailles party on Monday and of Christian Lacroix on Tuesday.
The Gibraltar-born designer paid tribute to both Dior and his Spanish roots in a 30-minute show where models, including Gisele Bundchen, Naomi Campbell, Amber Valetta and Linda Evangelista, strutted in dresses inspired by painters ranging from Cocteau and Picasso to Renoir, Degas and Goya.
John Galliano attempted to silence those who say he has betrayed Christian Dior's spirit as he produced a stark knee-length white satin dress with a tight waist adorned with a big rose and narrow sleeves elegantly hugging the tip of the shoulders.
Actress Kate Hudson applauded heartily as the last evening creation, a one-strap embroidered emerald bustier dress was presented before John Galliano proudly marched on stage in a bullfighter suit, with his long hair hanging loose.
After John Galliano, Lacroix treated the fashion glitterati with a show true to his southern roots.
Inside Palais de Tokyo, the contemporary art museum that faces the Eiffel Tower, models looked like dishevelled gypsies with giant pearl necklaces and embroidered high-heeled shoes.
Lacroix played with volumes, with a green silk cloak topping a black sheath with a silver-studded belt, or a bronze-coloured flounced jacket with feathers or colourful embroidered coats exposing sculpted yellow or purple gowns.
The audience went into raptures over Australian model Gemma Ward's Madonna-like wedding gown in golden fabric with flowers, and the vase with metallic roses on her head.
Birds of paradise braved Chanel's rain-soaked runway on Tuesday as German designer Karl Lagerfeld gave wings to his models to reinvent the style that has made the Paris haute couture house an icon of chic.
Torrential rain delayed the presentation of Chanel's latest fall/winter collection, set in a former royal park overlooking the Seine river, until a tarpaulin was fixed above the runway and hundreds of black Chanel umbrellas were given to the guests.
Hooded models with thick black sunglasses huddled along a gravel runway in the park outside Paris, sporting classic three-quarter-length coats and dresses with the new adornment of feathers and sequins on the arms and the side.
Avant-garde film maker David Lynch sat in the front row watching models in knee-length deep blue satin dresses fringed with black sequins running on each side from the hem to the armpit and from the shoulders to the hands.
For the evening, Lagerfeld dressed the Chanel woman in a long black sequin dress hemmed with white feathers.
"Haute couture has to be the ultimate in luxury or else a luxurious pret-a-porter would suffice. If it is not truly exceptional it has no reason to be," the pony-tailed Lagerfeld told the army of reporters surrounding him after the show.
"Haute couture is a distinct culture and this is the reason why there are so few couture houses around," he added, paying tribute to the "petites mains" who spend hours sewing beads and sequins on to haute couture dresses costing upwards of $10,000.
Feathers and fur also featured prominently in the fall/winter collection of Christian Lacroix, who celebrates 20 years at the helm of a house influenced by the bull fights and Provencal traditions the French designer grew up with.
Women dressed like maharajahs, Snow White's Prince Charming, chamberlains or the tsarevitch graced the runway of Jean-Paul Gaultier who treated fashion royalty with a fairytale haute couture show on Wednesday.
Revisiting the cross-gender theme which has made his name, the French designer dressed female models with embroidered tail coats, stretch trousers and seven-league boots, and hung crowns made of hair nonchalantly on the sides of their heads.
The white-tiled ballroom of Gaultier's headquarters was engulfed in blackness to the sound of Someday My Prince Will Come as projectors revealed a female prince languishing with love in a gold and red velvet throne at the end of the runway.
Saudi princesses and Spanish film maker Pedro Almodovar, who used Gaultier's extravagant costumes in his 1993 media satire Kika, smiled appreciatively from the front row as model Lily Cole presented a dark blue velvet coat with multi-coloured flowers embroidered on the hems and protruding epaulettes.
Gaultier's Prince of the Night sported a sleeveless black satin gown slit to the thigh with a satin army coat and cap, while Prince Hereditary wore a black strapless bustier over a white poplin shirt and tuxedo trousers.
Gaultier accessorised a green and burgundy outfit with a white fur wrap with fox heads, covered an ivory-coloured bustier with a floor-length see-through black lace gown and made his bride an Indian groom dressed in a white maharajah suit.
Gaultier's presentation concluded a three-day marathon of haute couture shows marked by heavy rain and anniversaries - those of Christian Dior and the French fashion house's charismatic designer Galliano in a lavish Versailles party on Monday and of Christian Lacroix on Tuesday.