Balenciaga takes Paris over: what a show!

Nicolas Ghesquiere, the creative director of Balenciaga did again. His Spring collection moved dramatically away from the dishevelled traveller look sneaking onto the streets this autumn/winter for a dramatic reworking of the cocoon shape, laying floral prints over moulded, stiff dresses teamed with multi-strap, multi-coloured knee-high peeptoes that are bound to become a benchmark of cool for the fashion savvy next year.

The silhouette was of a short dress with rounded shoulders and hemline - a signature at the remodeled Balenciaga.

The ensembles, in vivid computerized and Impressionist images of roses, peonies, poppies, orchids and dahlias, were accessorized with multi-coloured, thronged, metal-heeled gladiator sandals.

Still on the catwalks yesterday, corsage and pom-pom details livened up Viktor & Rolf's unusually sedate offering, while Jean Paul Gaultier hoped to tap into the success of Pirates of the Caribbean with a swashbuckling collection brimming with layers, corsetry and breeches.