Last night Iris van Herpen showed her Couture Fashion in Paris, a fashionista`s dream!

WHAT does Vivienne Westwood stand for? Rebellion; glamour; attitude; attention; noise. Add to that line up a big dose of chaos and you’re getting close to what happened on the catwalk in the Tuileries today.

There were herringbone tweed suits draped and caught around the body as we have come to know from Westwood – exaggerated proportions, muddled up fabrics and eccentric styling all part of her charm. Feathered war helmets, gold sequinned Mary Janes worn with bulky ribbed burgundy socks and gold splattered black leggings drove home the anything goes attitude – while mussed up hair and make-up that became increasingly nightmarish, as if the models’ faces had been dipped into it – or even as if they’d been forced to eat it – made sure nothing was ever light-hearted.

Sparkly brocade frock coats, shearling jackets over messily draped pinstripe skirts, blue dungaree dresses over lumberjack checked shirts were the edgy but wearable clothes Westwood lovers will buy next winter – or perhaps the more eccentric of them will go for gold sequinned thigh high boots with matching mini dress and make-up, who knows?

One blanket shawl had her King’s Road address emblazoned on it, while orange and green printed jumpsuits had a sexy Seventies appeal and taffeta dresses promised all the shapeliness her label is so famous for.

But Vivienne Westwood never wants you to relax and dream about wearing her clothes – these shows are more of an assault to the senses, with shockingly loud music and apocalyptic styling doing all it can to distract you from the fact that she’s created an iconic and lasting brand in spite of, or more likely because of, her determined non-conformity. (vogue)

One of fashion’s great intellectuals, Hussein Chalayan is also one of Fashion’s Week’s greatest showman and, having presented his collections by way of a film for this and last season, he has decided to go back onto the catwalk for spring/summer 2012.

While we look forward to a spectacle next season in Paris therefore, it can’t be denied that seeing Chalayan’s clothes close-up is the only way to appreciate his determination to bring his ideas to life in clothes. Still working through Japan as his inspirational source (last season we saw Sakoku = closed country; this season it’s Kaikoku = open country), he takes what he called the “surreal aspects of Japanese culture” and moulds them into clothes that are eminently wearable but extravagantly unique.

For now, Hussein wants to focus on designing clothes for women to wear to avoid people focusing on the conceptual aspects of his presentations and his interest in technology – that’s what this collection tells us. Though his film this season says different: “the floating dress” is made of gold, is remote controlled and expels Swarovski crystal “pollen” as it moves.

We can’t help but hope for some dresses growing from tables, an LED-filled robe or two and maybe a model chipping the dress of another with a hammer on the catwalk next season – but more of these perfectly executed clothes will do, too.(Vogue)

Iris van Herpen started her show with a clip of a naked woman surrounded by splashes of water.  That water appeared to be essential in her collection. Her ten looks represented ‘Crystallization’: the process of water turning into crystal.

 Inpsired by “the surreal aspects of Japanese culture” for his spring/summer collection, Hussein Chalayan  chose, instead of a catwalk, to create a film.

View the film on Vogue