Like a monumental Richard Serra installation, a massive blue bowtie, more than 50-foot high, was Chanel's imposing stage setting at the Grand Palais yesterday in Paris.
Summer Nights was the theme of the collection, a heavenly one in every sense, in which stars and stripes and silvery accessories brought both the American flag and the celestial night sky to mind.
Was Karl Lagerfeld thinking about Yeats and the "heavens' embroidered cloths"? Or was it a gesture to the key US market? Who knows, but it was a stellar show which opened with sexy, all-American style loose fit denims and ended with eyelet dresses threaded with lariat silver chains showing Lagerfeld's masterful twinning of the two ideas.
Among the galaxy of lovely items was a black dress with gilded waist insets of sequinned crescents and a floor-length number in midnight blue with a bolero and girlish headband that was quintessentially Gabrielle Chanel.
Accessories were also high shine; thigh high boots, toeless lace ups and chunky bags glinted in polished silver leather. Ever one with his ear to the ground, Lagerfeld sent out the season's newest imperative, jewelled bicycle clips and ankle purses, a tongue-in-cheek reference to the current vogue for Velib, the free bicycle scheme sweeping the city.
While Lagerfeld reinvents Chanel season after season, at YSL, Stefano Pilati seems to be marking time and his new collection, despite a YSL colour palette, went in confusing directions. Though the show had interesting new hourglass shapes and curvilinear cutting, it was let down by skirts with dipped hems, saggy-bottomed trousers and jackets that often looked as hard and stiff as brown cardboard.
Even the shoes, of crucifying contortions, forced models to walk almost on tiptoe. Nonetheless, there were some standout items in this strange parade such as a graceful caramel silk evening dress or a crossover jacket with flared back and forceful shoulderline.
Sonia Rykiel at 77 remains one of French fashion's superstars and celebrated her 40 years in fashion with a show based around yellow in its various shades and hues, not the most flattering colour for pale skins.
The best items were her signature striped knits with trompe l'oeil pockets, bowties and pinafore straps. Despite some predictably smart grey coats and tight-fitting jackets, giggling models wrapped in swansdown and long chiffon dresses failed to enliven a show that ultimately went on too long.