No one has dared admit it before, but those who can afford to pay the £10,000-upwards for a haute couture outfit are not necessarily as young as the nubile girls who model them on the catwalk. So it was both refreshing and enlightening when John Galliano launched the autumn collection with a show for Christian Dior that brought back a host of golden oldies who looked so fabulously glamorous that they outshone the young models who followed them down the catwalk.
Galliano is a story-teller and his show opened with a wedding party. It was straight out of a Visconti film, with the actress and former model, Marisa Berenson, playing mother of the bride in an ecru silk crepe dress with magnificent picture hat and the 69-year-old Carmen dell'Orifice modelling a lilac duchess satin corset jacket as the bride's equally glamorous aunt.
Long retired models such as Chandrika, Catherine Bailey (wife of David Bailey), and Benedetta Barzini, who were the stars of the 1970s and early 1980s, showed the younger models that if you know how to look after yourself you'll never be out of work. Ironically, Carmen says she is in greater demand today than when she first set out to model in 1947.
After the furore of his Hobo collection last January, Galliano was back on form this weekend with a show that demonstrated his skill with sinuous bias-cut evening wear that mixed fantasy with decadence and a little wit, notably Sophie Dahl dressed as a French maid.
By contrast, there was no model over 22 at Versace, but an audience that included Jennifer Lopez, Steven Spielberg's wife, Kate Capshaw, and Gwyneth Paltrow illustrated that you can be a fan at Versace whatever your age. Donatella's latest collection was a tale of proportions. Each outfit had a key detail such as a coral wool coat with two gigantic square buttons, or a white wool suit with large ties fastening the front. The theme continued into a pleated evening dress with just one voluminous sleeve.
One wonders if Galliano has set a trend this season as Alexander McQueen at Givenchy sent out two outfits on older models; one resplendent in a black feathered asymmetric dress and the other in a greypink mink jacket and crochet snakeskin skirt.
They were guests at McQueen's catwalk party and were dressed to make an entrance. Although they would have had some competition from the "illusion" tulle jumpsuit with crystal embroidery that could have passed for the emperor's new clothes, because the model seemed to sparkle in her nakedness.
McQueen reworked some of his signature silhouettes such as the skin-tight suit with the kimono sleeves and the flared trousers in sequinned chevroned pattern, or the skinny black cigarette pants with a tightly fitted jacket flourishing voluminous sleeves. His tailoring is impeccable, which is what the couture client expects, and the elongated proportions, exaggerated sleeves, and flaring trousers are a clever trick to disguise a less-than-perfect figure.
The decadence that Galliano alluded to in his collection was echoed by Jean-Paul Gaultier, who is as famous for his appearances on Eurotrash as he is for his fashion. His haute couture collection was inspired by the opulence and loose morals of Paris in the 1920s. It was technically brilliant, with photo-print fabrics of Picasso and Man Ray's infamous muse Kiki Montparnasse, whose image was worked into pixillated patterns or striped with black sequins to give a three-dimensional effect. Like McQueen, Gaultier's silhouette was sinuous and elongated and would flatter any woman between the ages of 20 and 70.