Gaga meets Atelier Versace Sprig/Summer Couture 2014

Grace Jones and Lady Gaga provide inspiration for Donatella Versace's Paris Haute Couture show with flesh-flashing red carpet gowns.

Paris Couture Week opened with Donatella Versace's regular tribute to The Goddess. 

Officially, Grace Jones was the muse.

Gaga turned up early, sporting a duplicate sparkly, black hood from next season's collection.

Sculpted, draped and contoured, Versace's floor length silk jersey dresses were an interesting clash of approaches. From the neckline down these gowns, some slashed, some plunging, others semi-transparent, became progressively more daring. Smothered with Swarovski crystals, slashed or wafty, in the grand Versace tradition, all of them defined the waist - and any other feminine curve worth highlighting.

“I was thinking of a woman who is powerful but also feminine and soft – a contemporary goddess. I love the couture – you can really have fun with it. The budgets are bigger so you can let your imagination run a bit,” said Donatella.

The last chapter of Mr. Marc at Louis Vuitton

 It's Marc Jacobs's 16-year tenure at Louis Vuitton which came to an end with a show that rang out with his greatest hits: the carousel, the escalator, the elevator, the fountain, all re-envisioned in lacquered black.

With dramatic classical music playing out the models in their extravagant peacock feather headdresses, it could have been funereal, but Vuitton chairman and CEO Michael Burke has been adamant that this should be a celebration of Jacobs and the success he has brought to the house as well as its parent company LVMH. 

The models strode out of the elevators, around the carousel and fountain, up the escalators, around the room and away again in fishnet body stockings smothered in sparkling jet. The only break from black were blue jeans with feathered pockets or ornate chiffon-filled cut-outs - but even they were veiled in more twinkling black chiffon dresses, some featuring feathered trains behind. Flat ankle boots and small drawstring bags will let the LV girl set out on her journey from here, while military jackets cropped high on the midriff had built up feathered epaulettes above loose tailored trousers below. A fabulous riff on the season's continued obsession with bomber jackets meant they were  puffed out with silk ruffles and jewels, while some had “Paris” or “Vuitton” spelled out in more glitter on the back.

These were true Jacobs showgirls, not sentimental for a moment but allowing for just a little nostalgia as we wish Jacobs well on his way. Just as his original show for Vuitton had been conducted all in black, this show marks a new beginning for him, for Vuitton, and for fashion's next chapter.

We are excited to see what Nicolas Ghesquière from Balenciaga will do next :)

Front row

The looks