Lookbooks

While men's fashion week and Haute Couture happen to take place at the same time of the year in Paris, that's about where their similarities end.  During men's, it's like Halloween for fashion kids.  Out comes the goth, androgynous, neon-haired, tattooed bunch of fashion-show-goers who we wonder, "Now what is it exactly that you do?" Piling on the Damir and Rick before heading out the door, chain smoking and complaining about all the 'boring' people at the shows, menswear week definitely brings out the freak in us all.

Haute Couture is a different animal.  Swap out the neon hair for neon Louboutins, and the Damir and Rick for Chanel and Valentino.  The front row of a Haute Couture show is what you would get if you swiped a net from L.A. to Abu Dhabi and only caught the ones with royal titles (titles like Editor in Chief count too) or multiple Birkins.  From the production of the show to the smell in the air, Haute Couture week is like living in a dream world.

Here are the top 5 moments from this season's Paris Haute Couture fashion week:

5. Diane Pernet, for whom I have a profound respect, was steaming underneath her black garb (literally and figuratively) after the 10-year-old kid of a freelance journalist was sat in front of her at the Gaultier Couture show. After nearly an hour and a half of waiting in the oven of a room for the show to start, @asvof finally called it quits.  "I can see the photos," she tweeted. Can you blame her?

4. As we're leaving a show, held at the beautiful Jardin des Plantes, the French broadcast journalist Pascal Mourier turns to ask what I thought of the show. We agree that it was fabulous, but as we're walking out, we hear the Queen of fashion reporting say en français, "Affreux..." Hmm. Perhaps we were wrong? This is when you smile and nod.

3. Then there are those fashion moments that leave you with goosebumps, remembering why you chose this field in the first place. We can thank guys like Elie Saab and and Valentino for these.  Or, the lesser known Didit Hediprasetyo.  At his show, the entire audience was mesmerized as the voices of a children's choir filled the 17th century church, the Oratoire du Louvre, when his show began.  The haunting models, draped in royal purples, sequins, jacquard, and fur only kept the feeling going.  Upon leaving, all we could say was "bravo!"  

2. At every fashion show, there's "that guy" who tries to snag a front row seat when his invitation is clearly marked standing.  At Paris fashion week, there really is "that guy," as in the one we all know as "the guy who always tries to steal a front row seat."  Satisfaction came in the form of him finally getting booted from a Haute Couture show after putting up a fight for his right....to sit. Caio!

1. Everyone's favorite "wow, really?" moment of the week was when the new power-couple Kimye (Kim Kardashian and Kanye West) ducked into Stephane Rolland just in time to see the last look and finale.  Unless they had been watching from backstage, I can't even imagine what had them running over an hour and a half late. Good thing the rest of us didn't have to wait for them to arrive...Kim even tweeted the day before that she was being fitted for a couture Rolland gown to wear to the show. As Kanye says, "That sh*t cray."