Models, not celebrity guests, turn heads in Paris

PARIS — Forget the celebrity guests; it's all about the models at this season's Paris Fashion Week. Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid dominated the Elie Saab catwalk, while icy blonds Doutzen Kroes and Lily Donaldson — both in black — caused a stir at Mugler.

Here are the highlights of yesterday's spring-summer 2016 shows:

ELIE SAAB'S LACE, STRIPES AND FLOWERS

It was a three-course fashion feast for Elie Saab, whose ultra-feminine looks fused lace and stripes and, aptly enough, flowers in the Tuileries' Gardens show.

The Lebanese designer normally holds his needle steadily in his hand and rarely strays from his bread-and-butter va-va-voom looks in pastel colors.

yesterday's ready-to-wear show was an exception to this rule, and saw Saab experiment.

Silhouettes short and mini or long and sweeping were delivered in romantic frills of lace — or "imitation lace" which was in fact laser-perforated leather on top models such as Kendall Jenner.

Vivid colors such as rose hibiscus, lawn green and azure — as well as black — fused with '70s silk neck ribbons for a feminine flair.

But, overall, the varied 47-piece collection was hard to pin down, and not all the looks gelled.

Saab got top marks for some experimentation in stripes — such as one silk gown; mini at the front with a train at the back. Its lines in red, pale pink and black transformed from horizontal to vertical as the train swept back with movement.

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VIVIENNE WESTWOOD'S PLAYS ON SIZE

American actress and singer Zendaya led the front row at fashion icon Vivienne Westwood's mad-as-a-hatter journey through Renaissance Venice that played on size and proportion.

An oversize floral coat and a ruffle-rich draped dress perfectly captured the romanticism of painters' flourishes on a model with tight ringlets.

Elsewhere in the spring-summer collection, the pure hues of the Renaissance could be seen in a comically gargantuan coat in Saxe blue that was suspended over the head of a model thanks to an inner structure on her shoulders.

The audience delighted.

Lozenge patterns of a harlequin, two-tone shoes and stripy legs peppered the show alongside bizarre hats from yesteryear — and highlighted Westwood's fascination with the sartorial elements of historical clothes making.

But where would the 74-year-old designer — who came of age creatively in the punk era — be without her retro references?

Two-tone hair, '80s-style oversize Al Capone suits, a striped drape coat — and even an oversize veil gave proceedings a New Romantics feel.

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BON ANNIVERSAIRE VOGUE PARIS!

Images of French Vogue editor Emanuelle Alt's good friend, model Kate Moss, have been plastered on posters around Paris for days in anticipation of one of the biggest events on the Paris Fashion Week calendar: Vogue Paris' 95th birthday.

The yesterday night event — hosted by Conde Nast France in an exclusive hotel particulier in Paris' posh 16th district — will draw in fashion week's glitterati and a swathe of celebrities in town for the ready-to-wear shows.

The magazine, founded in 1920 and based largely on the US version, has had a rich history in championing talented photographers such as Erwin Blumenfeld, Guy Bourdin and Robert Doisneau.

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MUGLER'S MECHANICAL FLOWER

A huge mechanical flower, (or perhaps a turbine), with a CD in the middle towered over the runway at David Koma's Mugler show.

It portended the theme of the interesting collection — the stylish woman as an aggressive, militaristic machine.

It began with variations on black and white looks. A jumpsuit and several mini-dresses — which hugged the body with diagonal movement in exaggerated lapels with contrasting black and white buttons.

The aggression built up nicely as the collection progressed. A chainmail disco-dress gave way to a tight leather military mini-dress, with epaulettes and a tight no-nonsense belt, and then a stylish leather coat-dress with epaulettes in toffee.

By the end, the woman turned into a fembot in a series of sexy futuristic looking mini-dresses with interlocking square panels.