Riccardo Tisci followed up last season with a kind of 2.O of Givenchy's winter anatomy references with his new obsession: Japan. The pieces in the photos below aren't the most laboriously detailed ones but they're my favourites, and the backs of all of them are even more impressive than the front. However, it's worth mentioning that according to Tim Blanks, one really out there outfit required 2,000 hours of cutting and 4,000 of sewing, and a single pair of trousers had 90 meters of plissé. Now that's haute couture! You know my feeling that your eyeballs should desperately plead 'May I have a rest, please?' upon viewing an haute couture show and your brain should fizzle from over-stimulation and amazement.
Karl Lagerfeld delivered what we always want from Chanel. Pretty, delicate, youthful beauty, this time inspired by light and the ballet. There were skirts and dresses over skinny pants and leggings, lots of floaty chiffon - I don't need to mention boucles and tweeds do I? and - flats! At first I wondered why the models looked so 'normal', and that was because they weren't Amazons in their little ballet shoes. I have to say I prefer the freakishly elevated walk down the runway but hey, at least there were no clips for the blooper reel.
Kristen McMenamy closed the show:
Photos: Style.com
