Safety pins and studs are the uniform at Balmain, Rick Owens gets controlling and another pregnant model hits the catwalk. Here are the highlights from day two in the City of Light...
L-R: Balenciaga, Zac Posen, Rick Owens and Balmain (all Getty Images)
Model moment: While last season was abuzz with news of Mark Fast putting curvier girls like Crystal Renn on the runway, this season it's all about the baby bump, with a pregnant Abbey Clancy (who walked down the catwalk at Giles) and a blooming, five-months-gone Miranda Kerr (who strolled down Balenciaga's runway yesterday) stealing the spotlight at the shows. Kerr wasn't the only big name at Balenciaga: Gisele, Stella Tennant, Amber Valletta and Carolyn Murphy walked alongside unknowns designer Nicolas Ghesquière had plucked from the street.
Crazy colours: Indian designer Manish Arora always knows how to make his fashion shows a spectacle, and yesterday was no exception as models wore neon bright latex leggings, sequinned dresses with postcard motifs, bangles up to the elbows and toy car headpieces. We love the homage to '80s hair as models sported super high side ponies.
A French debut: Zac Posen, usually a fixture at New York Fashion Week, decided to show his secondary line, Z Spoke there, and decamp to Paris for his main collection -- choosing the venue where the legendary Yves Saint Laurent used to show. Indulging his flair for the dramatic, lace, fur and feathers adorned his statement dresses, which Posen dubbed "couture for day."
Celeb spotting: Salma Hayek, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Catherine Deneuve were front row at Balenciaga, while a bevy of fashion folk went incognito for French Vogue's 90th anniversary masquerade ball. The guest list included Carine Roitfeld in a sheer and jungle print ensemble, Bianca Jagger, Lara Stone, Natalia Vodianova, Gisele, Dita von Teese and Tyra Banks.
Music meets fashion: From the punky scene at Balmain -- torn fishnets, frayed hot pants, leather bustiers, studded and safety-pinned biker jackets and slashed T-shirts -- to Balenciaga's boyish-inspired dressing for spring, the music scene is seriously influencing style next season. At Balenciaga, Ghesquière looked at musical stereotypes - the punk, the goth, the rocker, the heavy metal head-banger - to create a highly covetable collection which included everything from creeper-style shoes and houndstooth outerwear to sheer lace patchwork-style blouses that showed off Ghesquière's love of mixing the handmade with the highly technological.
In control: Rick Owens ditched his usual Gothic repertoire of drapey looks in favour of more rigid silhouettes -- and a lighter palette -- for spring. In a collection centred around aerodynamic shapes in the clothing, Owens also carried the message through to hair and beauty, with moth-wing inspired eyeshadow and combs of bone sticking out of models' hair, lending an extraterrestrial feel to the looks.
Sugar, spice and everything nice: Peter Copping's s/s 2011 collection for Nina Ricci featured plenty of delicate feminine accents like ruffles, feathers, pleats, lace trim and flowers on pastel pieces and acid-coloured dresses in shocking pinks, purples and yellows. The lovely prints were courtesy of collaborations with artists Christian Bérard and Marc Lalique.