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The hectic eight-day programme ended on a high note here Sunday, as leading fashion houses Lanvin, Louis Vuitton and Nina Ricci, as well as Lebanese designer Elie Saab, displayed various takes on glamour.
At Nina Ricci, Olivier Theyskens went for fragility. Anticipation was high for the 30-year-old Belgian's debut at the house, where his cloud-to-stormy greys for street wear and feather-light dresses were set against a poetic backdrop.
The far end of the brightly-lit runway was left open to reveal the outdoors where smoke was released to hang like mist in the trees at the Jardin des Tuileries near the Louvre. "I wanted to show how you can make something look light and flying, almost like wings," he said backstage, referring to evening dresses in paper-thin fabric twisted to stand off the top or hips.
The collection swung between daywear for the city of delicately bloused jackets with draping in a sweeping curve and skinny trousers, and wispy or satiny dresses for evenings.
A diagonal theme carried through from criss-crossed tights, to the ribbing on knits, trousers strapped from the knee and a sloping pattern or panels swathed across dresses. Theyskens joined the Nina Ricci house after the closure of the ready-to-wear line at his former employer Rochas last year.
American designer Marc Jacobs triumphed at Louis Vuitton with a wearable selection of everyday chic clothes with a mature edginess in pretty metallic or rich antique shades and interesting fabrics.
Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson, who appears in the luxury goods maker's current advertising campaign, added the front-row glamour. The collection was entitled an homage to 17th century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. For catwalk glamour, jackets had long shaped backs, knits were worn loose with a triangular cutout at the front and skirts or dresses had loose big pleats for an easy silhouette, or were straight but not tight.
Fabrics included a wet fur look for a tomato red belted coat, and half a skirt looking like water had been spilt on it. Wearing large scrunchy berets, the models carried a wide array of bags. At Lanvin, Alber Elbaz's vision of glamour seemed to be based on well-cut and cleverly-constructed clothes in sleek satiny fabrics and preferably in black, despite an opening burst of fuchsia.
The Israeli-American designer placed emphasis on the shoulders with shaped puffed sleeves that were cut into the bust of a tapered dress to look almost like a bolero, or by putting cape tops on dresses.
When he was not focused on the upper half, he added darts to a pencil skirt creating soft points at the hips or doubled-up material to create a controlled frill running down the back.
Sleek and mostly slender, the collection was made up of dresses and skirts in solids with embellisment kept to a minimum. He occasionally added a fur ruff, linear detailing or a big red flower brooch.
"An instinct for power" was how Elie Saab's programme notes described his collection of full-skirted and curvy floor-sweeping evening wear where glamour translated into glitter gowns or hot pants.
Mostly in black, the designer also featured teal blue and electric blue and a dusky combination of green and purple stripes. Minis or a skating skirt added leggy sex appeal, and waists were cinched.
