It's Paris, it's Sunday and the fashion caravan has hit town for the final stop on the autumn-winter show circuit. We have come to a city fuelled with rumours of more acquisitions in the designer star wars.
There is still no news of who will succeed Alexander McQueen at Givenchy, but the two hot names in contention are 24-year-old Belgian designer Olivier Theyskins and Alber Elbaz, the 39-yearold Israeli-American who revived Guy Laroche and designed two collections at Yves St Laurent, just before the label was taken over by Tom Ford of Gucci.
Theyskins, an avant-gardist with great cutting skills and a bent for couture would certainly spark fireworks on the catwalk, but so does Galliano at LVMH's sister label, Christian Dior; whereas Elbaz, who reignited the St Laurent label a year ago, would bring modernity and refinement to the house.
Meanwhile, Nicolas Ghesquiere, the 29-year-old designer of Balenciaga is being wooed with the offer of his own signature label by Gucci, provided he can extricate himself from Balenciaga.
Paris may be the final stop, but fashion likes to save the best till last. This is the city where creativity, technique and presentation are at their most polished. One of the first shows to demonstrate this was Yohji Yamamoto, the Japanese designer who has been a regular on the Paris schedule for 20 years, just like Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garcons.
His shows are frequently described as romantic and poetic, but he took a different stance this season, pushing forward a racy sportswear scene with go-faster stripes, hooded blousons and sneakers married to long skirts and baggy Chaplinesque tailoring. At times it was an uneasy marriage.
Sportswear implies ease, comfort and freedom of movement, but Yamamoto might set a sleeve in an armhole at an awkward angle, immediately constricting the wearer. Or he might put a blouson hem on a very fitted jacket. So you couldn't call this athletic.
Yamamoto is a conceptualist who likes to confound and amuse. His jaunty voluminous Chaplinesque suits were delightful, while the greatcoat with pinch buttoning and the refined trouser suits with the one-piece tailcoat were star pieces.
On the catwalk autumn looks like being a dark, sombre season. So Junya Watanabe's and Christian Lacroix's great jolts of colour were a welcome surprise. Watanabe picked up on the 1960s futuristic theme that pops up at Fendi in Milan and showed trapeze dresses with cut-out in a collection of bright tweeds with colourful plastic inserts.
Lacroix's mix of bubblegum pink, turquoise and zinging citrus brights were playfully used on Geisha and Pop Art prints, trimmed with colourful pompoms and bits of fur.
His collection referred to the joy and larkiness of the circus, with asymmetric dresses and wacky fur trims but, although beautifully executed, the look was at times as confusing as it was flamboyant. Lacroix cannot seem to tame his exuberance, but somehow you don't want him to.