A user's guide to Paris fashion week
'[The] current preference in the business where beauty is capital is for young people of no particular beauty: women with attenuated limbs, tiny heads and a range of expressions that can sometimes put an observer in mind of an aquarium.'
This season's model Belgian face Elise Crombez - last seen in this season's Prada campaign - was the girl everyone wanted to book, along with Russian Lolita type Natalia Vodianova and Swedish newcomer Madeleine Blomberg. But the biggest exit belonged to 1970s veteran Pat Cleveland (above), known for her freewheeling walk and unsettling ability to make eye contact with just about everyone in the audience. She was joined by children Noel and Anna - an aspiring strutter - on the Chanel runway.
On the catwalk You will require assistance and nimble fingers to get into - and out of - some of autumn/winter's key pieces: slim, strappy, laced-up catsuits that look like they fell off the back of The Matrix costume lorry. Get them from Helmut Lang, Alexander McQueen (left), Lanvin and Christian Dior. What else should you expect next season? A Middle Ages renaissance (chez Veronique Branquinho, Romeo Gigli, Alexandre Mathieu and Paco Rabanne), Asian-inspired looks (Alexander McQueen, Dior, above left), the 40s (Dries Van Noten, John Galliano, above right), the 60s (Louis Vuitton, above centre, and Chanel) and - oops, they've done it again - the 1980s (Stella McCartney, Sonia Rykiel and Costume National).
Debutantes Belgian wunderkind Olivier Theyskens showed his first collection for the house of Rochas: think ladylike, laced-trimmed suits and cocktail dresses worthy of an Alfred Hitchcock heroine. Also new is Sudanese model and former fashion student Alek Wek's debut bag collection, called 1933 after the year of her father's birth. Inspired by her homeland, the line features woven messenger bags and satchels in oiled leather and alligator skin.
Front row and centre Sharon Stone (left) caused a stir at Celine, Kylie Minogue (centre) turned up at Chloe's 50th anniversary party at the Cafe de Flore, Catherine Deneuve and Marianne Faithfull sat side by side at Louis Vuitton, and Tilda Swinton was the star of Viktor and Rolf's hit collection. The cult actress not only opened and closed the show, but also recited the soundtrack and inspired the hair and make-up: clean faces and slicked-back hair.
Flying fur Peta protests have become as much a part of fashion week as air-kissing and over-sized attitudes, with demonstrators appearing on Paris runways at Celine, Christian Dior and Jean Paul Gaultier. Gaultier found a tongue-in-chic - if not exactly tasteful - way to tackle the problem, draping protesters in fur coats (left) before removing them from the catwalk with the help of security guards. Karl Lagerfeld had a novel idea, suggesting the protesters invest their energies in finding a way to turn all animals into vegetarians, 'because nothing kills more animals then other animals', he told Women's Wear Daily.
