babe talk THE recent Paris couture shows marked the retreat of the megamodels, and the ushering in of the superbabe phenomenon. Thus, the voluptuous Yasmeen Ghavri was nowhere to be seen, Helena Christensen appeared on only one or two catwalks and the luscious Claudia Schiffer, a one-time firm couture favourite, was the star attraction only at Yves Saint Laurent.
In place of these catwalk divas were the lankier, limper replacements. Stella Tennant, sporting a new bleached hair do, was all over the shows, as were the blonde and gangly Jodie Kidd and the pouting Kirsty Hume.
The shows weren't exactly low-profile: there was enough celebrity-spotting to be done off the catwalks, with high-profile designers happily attending other high-profile designers' shows. Christian Lacroix sat mesmerised in the front row of Valentino's couture event, next to private clients Prince Pavlos of Greece and his princess, the former Marie-Chantal Miller. There was another, much less glam princess floating about, too: Fergie sat in the front row at Christian Dior, at the shows to interview John Galliano for society-watching magazine Paris Match. Her published 'reportage' included gritty questions such as, 'What inspires you?' Needless to say, the answer isn't 'Fergie'.
Also at Dior was the imperturbable Nan Legeai, head of sister company Celine, who sat next to Louis Vuitton chief Yves Carcelle and his wife Rebecca.
'Absolutely exquisite,' rhapsodised Madame Carcelle after the show. 'I'd wear each and every piece.' 'This could be an expensive afternoon,' her hubby lamented.
stitched up RUMOURS doing the rounds in Paris are that Galliano was shown the door at Givenchy because he was 'a nightmare' to work with, said one source. The stint at Dior apparently is something of a 're-education', although he is said to be already ruffling feathers in his atelier.
Meanwhile at the Dior show, employees chose the event to broadcast grievances: they stood outside the Grand Hotel, handing out flyers insisting that their jobs were at stake, they were underpaid and overworked at busy times of the year and temporarily 'laid off' when things were slow. Making his way through the crowd, Jean Paul Gaultier picked up a flyer, read it aloud in mock horror and tossed it aside again. Very respectful.
