Paris haute couture week: the fashion editor's view

“Neon baroque” was how Karl Lagerfeld described the Chanel collection. We call it acid-and-silver, with dropwaisted silhouettes and Lady-Gaga-meets-Daphne-Guinness hair. Lemon and eau-de-nil look set for their hottest summer since the 1950s, while silver booties recall the 1960s. Just don’t call it futuristic. Photograph: Antonio de Moraes Barros Filho/WireImage.com

At Givenchy, Riccardo Tisci took his cue from the “steamy streets of Paris in the 1970s” – Guy Bourdin, Helmut Newton, and the film Emmanuelle. We think the Bowie-esque tailoring would look fabulous on the new-look Victoria Beckham. Not sure what Tisci would make of that, but his LVMH bosses would most likely be keen. Photograph: BENOIT TESSIER/Reuters

You may not have heard of Alexis Mabille, but he’s the guy who brought bows back into fashion. (See: the hair at Chanel; Kanye West’s bowtie.) This season, he looked at cubist art, and translated it into powerful geometric tailoring in blocks of cobalt, fuschia and lipstick red. Photograph: YOAN VALAT/EPA

Haute couture isn’t all let-them-eat-cake. Joseph Thimister, one-time Balenciaga designer who staged a comeback on the couture schedule this week, based his collection on “war, sorrow, and destruction”, complete with blood-spattered trousers. Photograph: FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images

John Galliano’s Dior collection was inspired in part by Charles James, a British designer who was an idol of Christian Dior himself. Expect to see even more tightly whittled jackets on the high street after this collection. Also, if they sell stocks in apricot and rose pink satin, then buy, buy, buy. Photograph: Tony Barson/Tony Barson/WireImage.com

What does a star wear on the red carpet this season? A dress inspired by the moon, most likely. Armani Prive knows how to make a frock that dazzles (laminated organza helps, as does an army of skilled seamstresses to sew on a million sequins). Slim trouser suits with half moon shoulders segued into dresses with lunar-eclipse cut outs. Why the moon, Giorgio? “Because it’s romantic, of course.” Photograph: PATRICK KOVARIK/AFP/Getty Images