Although noted before now, it is worth reiterating that fashion in Paris no longer belongs to the French.
As the journalists, buyers and designers from around the world gather in the city this week, they do so to see representatives of their own countries as much as those of the host country.
France has significantly failed to produce a new generation of fashion talent and so, to retain a place at the top of the hierarchy, Paris has been obliged to reinvent itself as the favourite meeting place for international design, the point at which fresh ideas are first shown rather than created.
As if to underline this, yesterday's Paris schedule included shows by three Japanese, two Belgians, an Englishman, a Turk, a Spaniard and an Australian.
The last of these, Collette Dinnigan, is of Irish parentage, resident in Sydney but bringing her collections twice yearly to Paris, because she knows this is the place where most buyers, particularly American, will see her work.
Dinnigan is an exponent of the underwear-as-outerwear school of fashion. Her hallmark is the silk crepe slip trimmed with fine lace and then lavishly beaded and embroidered.
There were plenty of such pieces in yesterday's show but repetition at the hands of lesser designers over the past few seasons has had the effect of making the slip look rather stale now, even when teamed by Dinnigan with an elaborately decorated twinset.
Fresher looking were her floral, knee-length shifts reminiscent of the early 1960s and some bold chocolate brown polka-dot dresses and separates.
While the first half of the collection appeared dedicated to sober colours, a more riotous palette emerged later thanks to hot pink brocade capri pants, turquoise and gold embroidered sari silk sarong skirts and sea green beaded and fringed drop-waisted dresses.
Long-time Collette Dinnigan fan Paula Yates, who used to attend the shows with Michael Hutch ence, was spotted in the front row. But the paparazzi were even better served at the Christian Dior presentation later yesterday afternoon when Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck arrived.
Held in the company's Avenue Montaigne headquarters, the collection by John Galliano (one of the British designers who now effectively rule over Paris fashion) took a fresh look at military style.
As the Soviet and Chinese red armies abandon their uniforms, these could be snapped up and turned into cut-price versions of what Dior is proposing for next spring and summer.
Think snappy fitted cheongsam jackets with frogging fastening and Mao collars in a lively shade of khaki, highlighted with touches of red.
These were combined with voluminous pants and skirts, the latter fine-pleated and with beading on the hem. Figure-hugging laminated black knits followed, along with some of Galliano's signature waisted jackets.
Looking back to the early days of revolution, evening wear borrowed ideas from the Russian constructivist artists and their bold use of black, cream and red geometric forms.
In a collection that searched globally for ideas, one notably absent source of inspiration was Paris; the days of French fashion hegemony have most definitely passed.