A gaping rip was made in the Paris haute couture schedule yesterday when the Givenchy collection was cancelled at the twelfth hour. "Production delays" was the reason given, something unheard of in the world of high fashion. The real reason could be a developing row between archrivals Gucci, which bought a 51 per cent stake in Alexander McQueen's own label last month, and LVMH, which owns Givenchy.
McQueen has been unhappy with his tenure at Givenchy, but his contract runs until October. Givenchy was keen to quash any rumours of a falling out, but according to US industry bible Women's Wear Daily, LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault was loath to give McQueen the oxygen of publicity at Givenchy's expense.
The cancellation has served to heighten speculation that McQueen might be released from his contract early, with young Belgian designer Olivier Theyskins tipped to be his successor.
The summer haute couture collections got off to a racy start with Donatella Versace's Atelier collection witnessed by a star-speckled front row including Pamela Anderson, Lil'Kim and Damian Hirst. Her message was the return of the hour-glass silhouette, with models poured into long evening dresses and sassy little suits tightly corseted into place. Inspiration came from Toulouse-Lautrec in subtle details like Victorian chiffon blouses frothing from tightly cinched waists, fluffy hair-dos and can-can ankle boots.
Delicate, tattered frills of chiffon around necks and armholes, meanwhile, gave a punkish twist to the look.
The punkish theme mixed with corseted silhouettes similarly underpinned the Jean-Paul Gaultier collection. His evening dresses were exquisitely slashed and tattered, then re-embroidered into draped swags over bare flesh. There were little smoky grey and soft pink tap dresses brought to life with dangling fringes of crystals and a plethora of coloured corsets, including a full-length peachy satin corset dress modelled by the newly slimmed down Sophie Dahl.
Best, though, were the three-piece smoking suits. Gaultier played a clever trompe-l'oeil trick by slicing the jacket in two horizontally, so the sleeves and upper part of the jacket were actually a bolero while the bottom part was a corset. This slick detail appeared in both a trouser suit and long evening dress version and proved the signature look of the collection.