Schiaparelli returns to Paris

Sixty years after Elsa Schiaparelli presented her last collection the brand has returned to the Paris catwalk. During the highly anticipated fashion show onlookers were treated to a visual feast of the house’s summer collection.

Bought in 2007 by Italian tycoon Diego Della Valle, the Schiaparelli brand is now in the care of acclaimed womenswear designer Marco Zanini,

Elsewhere in Paris for Haute Couture week people queued at the city’s Fine Arts Academy, to take in Alexandre Vauthier’s latest designs.

The collection had a distinctly American feel with a Parisian twist.

‘‘The collection is based on the surfing culture and also really centred on the West Coast, on California, but also has an ethnic laid-back feel. This has been garnished with the allure and spirit of Paris,’‘ Vauthier said.

The French designer always serves up the one of the most sex-charged collections on the couture calendar. And this show was no different. Vauthier’s range of light dresses left little to the imagination.

Karl Lagerfeld showed his new collection for Chanel at the Grand Palais. Bouclö jackets, shimmery knee-length skirts, floor-skimming robes with ostrich feathers unusually combined with trainers were the principle themes running through.

And Dior held its event for Paris Haute Couture week in a purpose-built grotto in the gardens of the Rodin Museum. Designer Raf Simons focused on the sensual, and the distinctly feminine with intricate decoration combined with layers of embroidered flowers.