Mariachi cries at Gaultier conclude haute couture

PARIS — Spring-summer 2010 haute couture displays ended last week with a piercing mariachi cry at Jean Paul Gaultier's raucous south-of-the-border-themed show, a neon paradise of receding hemlines at Valentino and endless sweet and sexy silk gowns from red-carpet-favorite Elie Saab.

Haute couture collections — made up of extravagant made-to-measure gowns and daywear with prices tags resembling those of motor vehicles — are meant to showcase fashion house's unbridled creativity and technical savoir faire.

Both of those were on prominent, even triumphant display at Gaultier, as the one-time enfant terrible of French fashion fielded his strongest collection in several seasons.

His raucous romp through Mexico's history included hip hop vaquera pant suits, gowns of Conquistador armor and Aztec princess cocktail dresses made from woven palm fronds. It culminated in a live performance of mariachi standard "Cucurrucucu Paloma" by a famous French singer who strutted the catwalk in a cha-cha-cha dress in tomato red tulle.

Bond girl Olga Kurylenko called Gaultier's "the most fun show I've seen," and said she "just want(ed) to get onstage and dance."

The atmosphere was decidedly more subdued at Valentino, despite the new design team's continuing efforts to reach out to younger consumers.

Their ultra-abbreviated bustier dresses in saturated fluorescent chiffons were gorgeous and looked sure to please their target audience — the international jet-set crowd of paper-thin party girls.

But Valentino's strategy begged the question: Are those girls really interested in couture?

Lebanon's Elie Saab played it safe with a pretty-but-uninspired collection of spaghetti-strapped gowns in dusty mauves, muted pinks and soft peach.

Turkish designer Dilek Hanif — one of a host of smaller labels that show off the official haute couture calendar — sent out a lovely collection of short cocktail dresses and cropped beaded vests in a similarly muted palette. With the show, Hanif proved she's someone to watch.

After Valentino, the fashion glitteratti celebrated the end of the Paris shows that began a week earlier with menswear, descending en masse on a soiree at the Ritz — attended by Kate Moss and sponsored by Paris bagmaker Longchamp — and the opening of an exhibit of rhinestone-encrusted dresses, which took place across town.