Paris Fashion Week: A critic’s 360-degree view

Kenzo designers (and Opening Ceremony founders) Humberto Leon and Carol Lim showed their fall collection at a concert space on the outskirts of Paris.

And it was a show all right, with a live performance (at 10 a.m.!) from the band Saint Etienne and huge, mirrored monoliths that moved up, down and around the runway stage, who knows how.

MORE: See Kenzo’s colors, patterns and layers, plus looks from Celine, Chloe and Givenchy >

The crowd builds outside before the Christian Dior show.

Perhaps with a nod to tomboy chic Lorde, designer Raf Simons brought more masculinity into the Dior collection, starting with terrific-looking pants suits with beautifully tailored tweed jackets over slim cropped pants and glossy vinyl boots with Lucite heels. The shirttails of menswear-style button downs peeked through the pleats of tweed skirts. Jacquard knit dresses in abstract animal stripe patterns hugged the curves. A-line mini dresses came covered in patches of multicolored fur. or with sleek harness details. And gowns glistened in patent leather resembling menacing looking reptile scales. The combined effect was rich and sensual but still modern -- a rare animal, indeed.

MORE: At Dior, life has certainly gone on post-Galliano >

John Galliano, who was fired from the top job at Dior in 2011 after being recorded on a camera phone making racially insensitive remarks in a drunken rant, showed his first ready-to-wear collection for his new employer, Maison Margiela, following his couture debut for the label in January in London. The show was small by Paris Fashion Week standards, but the stakes were high. Galliano was looking for redemption. And he found it by showing a collection that was very him -- romantic cut velvet maxi coats; lace, sequin and feather-trimmed slip dresses; velvet knickers; sheer blouses, spidery lace knits and funny fake fur slippers with an idiosyncratic bent.

MORE: John Galliano’s collection makes a commentary on self-doubt and fallibility >

Carven's new designer team looked to the past, but with an emphasis on sportswear. Their first collection for the house was inspired by a London girl living in Paris, and had a '60s jet set, apres-ski spirit with high-waist pants, turtleneck sweaters, floral jacquard bomber jackets, double slit miniskirts and chunky clod hopper mules.

MORE: Divas in fringe at Balmain and a newly platinum Kim Kardashian >

A large crowd gathered for the Lanvin show at the “L’Ecole des Beaux Arts on Thursday. Photographers buzzed as they tried to snap shots of a couple of platinum blonds – celebrity attendees Kim Kardashian and Jared Leto, who came with newly dyed locks and almost upstaged the show.

MORE: Move over Kim Kardashian and Jared Leto, this is Rick Owens' show >

Black mini dresses cast a sexy spell with star-studded embellishment, or metal fringe that clanked as models walked. Anthony Vaccarello's vision of tailoring involved black tunics with oversized silver buckle belts, and more metal embellishment down the sides, and one-legged pants/skirts (sk-ants). The collection had a sexy zing, but felt more like a refinement of previous ideas than an evolution.

MORE: Vacarello is the "sex pot" of Paris' new class of designers >

A few people begin arriving on the walkway leading into National Library of France, where Christophe Lemaire held his show in a venue that suits his cerebral aesthetic. There were midi wrap skirts, off-shoulder tops, swingy coats and shawls, and sensible shoes with ballet-like elastic laces at the ankle.

MORE: Photos from the Lemaire show and other highlights from Paris Fashion Week >