Galliano Steals the Show in Paris

Paris haute couture week, which began yesterday, was dogged by bad omens even before the city's Olympic disappointment. The death on Sunday of Nan Kempner, the American socialite who was one of haute couture's best customers, was a timely reminder of a pressing problem: that the client base for this exclusive branch of fashion is ageing.

The Italian designer Valentino, from whose front row last night Kempner was missing, described the death as "like losing a part of our family".

And then there was the coincidence of yesterday's opening shows being staged as world leaders gathered in Gleneagles to address the plight of the world's poor. The contrast could not but portray haute couture, where a dress costs upwards of £20,000, in a harsh light.

So it was probably wise in the circumstances for Giorgio Armani, staging his second haute couture collection, to declare yesterday that "I am not here to save couture". None the less, Armani is in bullish mood. "I am here to do couture on my own terms."

Armani's spokespeople are keen to point out that he has made prices more accessible - you might just pick up a little something for under £10,000.

The collection focused on an extreme slenderness of silhouette, emphasised with mermaid hems, cinched waists and headpieces of feathers, which rose above the heads of these exotic creatures like unicorns' horns.

But it was a Brit who stole the show from under the Parisians' noses yesterday. When John Galliano is on top form, no one can touch him. And this was the case with his collection for Christian Dior yesterday. Cobwebbed statues, a horse and carriage, ivy-clad gates and a soundtrack of thunder, howls and muffled hooves formed the backdrop for a collection exploring the connection between Dior's 1947 New Look collection and traditional Peruvian dress. Eye-poppingly theatrical though the show was, it also had a point to make, about how the real beauty and mystery of a couture gown lies beneath the surface.