Despite the grandeur of the setting at the Grand Palais and an audience of some 1,400 people including the glitterati of Paris, the Dior collection this time was a low-key affair equally divided between smart tailored suits with strong commercial appeal and draped silk evening wear.
If it lacked the wow factor, it suggested a more conservative approach at work, more muted in spirit than usual. Yet Dior's fortunes are in the ascendant. Since president Sidney Toledano hired John Galliano as designer in l998, sales have tripled and are currently heading for the $1 billion (€0.78 billion) mark.
The grey wool suits that opened the show with bodices of grey lace and military shoulder details may have been a reference to the colour indelibly associated with Christian Dior. Immaculately tailored, a three-quarter length jacket with slit elbows was elegant in a Parisian way worn with a simple braided skirt, though the evil-looking snakeskin shoes with dangerous dagger points were more subversive. Even the bags seemed more restrained, more corralled in shape than the famous Gaucho, with neat chain handles or small mesh clutches. Dresses are a Galliano strength and a lace-embroidered khaki shift was a simple winner, like some of the slinky silk evening wear.
Belgian designer Dries van Noten showed his collection in the Beaux Arts with a massive panel of pink and red dahlias forming the backdrop to a spring collection which was fresh, girlish and modern. Taking his cue from the street, he refashioned the parka into light summer wear with pistachio, navy or creamy opalescent silks. A dress in white cotton had its familiar details like drawstring waists and button fronts though others were mostly tent shapes or pinafores.
Andrew Gn (pronounced Gun) is a Singapore designer who makes shiny clothes for New York's shiny set. From the neat little coats with silver belts to the rhinestoned studded platinum silk shifts, everything had a rock hard couture polish. Crystal buttons, patent sequins, mother of pearl flowers, silver and anthracite beads were just part of the artillery in a show in which jewellery became integral to the clothes. One black dress in pleated silk glittered with a silver and crystal 3-D serpent weaving through its contours. Awesome.