The new skirt: Balenciaga at Paris Fashion Week. Photo: Getty
DESIGNER: Nicolas Ghesquière for Balenciaga
INSPIRATION: A hallucinatory trip, complete with lizard-like prints and a multi-coloured dream-landcsapes printed on white silk.
TOP LOOKS: It was all about the skirt; finishing just below-the-knee, it was low slung and draped at the front with a semi-triangular hem. Elsewhere Ghesquière's renegade approach to fabric came to the fore, and there was a fake leather knitted bomber jackets and shocking pink lattice-work tabards, contrasting with elegant draped crepe tunics.
WHO WAS THERE: It was (inexplicably) all about the boys; Mario Testino, Jefferson Hack and Orlando Bloom (to support his wife Miranda Kerr who was on the runway) all sat front row.
WHAT WE THOUGHT: Spring's appetite for block colour has evolved into a more collage-like approach to texture and colour for autumn, and Ghesquière's experimentation with fabric meant that he did this with true expertise. Ghesquière moved far, far away from last season's hard-edged punk aesthetic toward something altogether softer. But this wasn't about being "safe", he managed to produce a collection that was elegant and felt very new. And if we're not all sashaying around the office in his new skirt silhouette come autumn, I'll eat my fake leather knitted bomber jacket.