PARIS - With lots of black and lashings of leather, Valentino's autumn-winter look unveiled in Paris on Tuesday sailed into unusual waters for the Italian house, but stayed true to its subtly feminine esthetic.
Under a Fashion Week marquee in the Tuileries gardens by the Louvre, Valentino's first model stepped out in a cape-coat in black leather, supple as fabric, parted to reveal matching wide bermuda pants and white blouse.
Leather came as fluid coats in varying lengths, with buttons or curlicued toggles like the fastenings of a Chinese silk coat.
Front row, the US soul singer Alicia Keys and top model Natalia Vodianova watched the models file by in romantic chignons twisted behind the ears, in sleeveless dresses cut on the knee, one red with a leather breastplate.
Necklines were demure, mostly straight cuts that "focus attention on the face" explained the duo Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli, the house designers since 2008.
With sleeves cut at the elbow, the handful of lace dresses and blouses seemed modest despite the transparency, unlike some designers who seem to offer up their models' bare skin to the onlooker.
A mostly black palette gave way to a handful of whites, a few prints, and splashes of the house's trademark red.
Short-haired fur jackets jostled for attention with show pieces like an elaborate coat in a patchwork of black textures, from the shiniest down to the perfect mat of velvet.
Later at Alexander McQueen, British designer Sarah Burton left the fashion crowd breathless with light, ample ball gowns in chiffon, feathers and fur.
Silver visors hiding their faces, McQueen's models walked as if blind beneath a canopy of silver wire and tiny lights.
Mongolian lambskin - a deep, fluffy fur - dotted the first pieces of the collection, in shades ranging from white to bold raspberry, covering the shoulderblades or simply wrapped around the neck.
Sleeves were exaggeratedly long, while tiny waists were circled by silver belts with stylised knots at the front.
Dresses and coats were cut short, the models' legs planted in platform fur boots with a hidden, high heel, all the weight resting on the ball of the foot.
After a series of dresses in white broderie anglaise - a type of embroidery with large stitched eyelets - there were black mink numbers, like a deep-plunging dress that seemed entirely embroidered with balls of fur.
A stunning long sleeveless dress in deep raspberry ran from a tiny-flower embroidered bustier into a straight skirt that exploded into a ball of fluffy ostrich feathers.
On the last few gowns, dozens of layers of wispy chiffon were pulled in around the waist, like creations from another world, that of McQueen's designer, who stepped out for a bow in jeans, a pair of scissors in her rear pocket.
