Paris Fashion Show opens in style

The opening of the haute couture season was welcomed in style by the start of Paris Fashion Week in the French capital.

Couturiers and teams of seamstresses were toiling in ateliers all over the city were yesterday putting finishing touches to collections which feature suits costing a minimum of €5,000 and evening gowns which can easily top the €100,000 mark.

The Italian maestro, Giorgio Armani, supervised the final selection for his Privé collection, which will be shown tonight at the Palais de Chaillot, by the Eiffel Tower, an event which will mark his 35 years in the fashion business.

The contribution made by Armani, the designer who invented the modern working woman's wardrobe, will be officially recognized this Thursday when he will receive the Légion d'Honneur from the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, in a ceremony at the Elysée Palace.

This haute couture week, for next autumn/winter, is one of the busiest for several seasons in France's premier fashion industry, which has, in the past, been compared to a dinosaur.

A total of twenty-three couturiers are featured on the official calendar of the regulating body, the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, with dozens of off-piste presentations and shows adding to the fashion excitement.

Among the established catwalk highlights will be the shows by the British couturier, John Galliano for Christian Dior; Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel; Christian Lacroix; and Jean Paul Gaultier.

The young Italian designer, Alessandra Facchinetti, will make her haute couture debut for the Italian label, Valentino, replacing the legendary founder of the jet set brand, Valentino Garavani, who retired earlier this year.

The week also features the debut of the first Chinese couturier to show in Paris, the 37-year-old Ma Ke, from Zhuhai in south China, who will unveil her collection entitled 'Wuyong' on Thursday.

In addition, the season will feature a revival of the exotic Russian brand, Irfé, established in Paris in 1924, by a Russian prince and princess who could trace their ancestry back to Catherine the Great, and which was much favored by Russian nobility.