Fashion Diary: Roll the credits on the spring runway season

Gossip, first impressions, trends in the making, celebrities and style setters. A regular feature by fashion critic Booth Moore.

The collections weren't just compelling this season, many of them were downright gripping. Just look at this amazing shot from John Galliano's show last week. The movie clapboard invitations set the scene for a "girl goes to Hollywood to become a star" theme. And the show didn't disappoint, with stunning visuals and a special effect that had bubbles falling from the ceiling and exploding into puffs of smoke in the models' wake.

The bias-cut chiffon gowns might have been fit for a starlet, but they didn't break any new ground for Galliano. But does that really matter anymore? He probably could have shown the same Hollywood-inspired collection he did a year ago; and between all the bubbles and Prince in the front row, no one would have noticed. Call it a sequel.

Coming on the heels of Rodarte's feathered Gothic romance in New York, Raf Simons' sultry strip down in Milan (complete with a soft-core film clip), Chanel's high-class barn-raising, Hermes' grassy tennis match and Alexander McQueen's Atlantis blockbuster in Paris, Galliano's cinematic tale underscored that fashion and entertainment are growing ever closer each season. (And I'm not talking about Lindsay Lohan's turn as creative advisor for Emanuel Ungaro.)

Great and memorable 'fros, past and present

Leave it to provocateur Marc Jacobs to roll out one of the most culturally significant hairdos of the last century -- then exaggerate it.

As reported by fashion critic Booth Moore, the designer's spring 2010 Louis Vuitton show saw models marching down the runway wearing beach-ball-size Afro wigs. The clouds of faux hair were so capacious, it was a wonder the girls were able to keep their tiny chins up.

In celebration of the saucy style's return to catwalk glory, we thought it high time to take a look at some of the most notable Afros from the last 50 years.

Angela Davis

Communist, feminist and Black Panther supporter Angela Davis set the benchmark for the globular style in the early '70s with her perfectly circular cloud of loose curls. The message? "Don't tread on me -- or my hair."

Jimi Hendrix

Guitar god Jimi Hendrix's medium-sized 'fro, like his untamed music, was full of unexpected peaks and valleys.

Pam Grier

When she wasn't flaunting relaxed, glamour-girl tresses, Pam Grier -- queen of "blaxploitation" films, most notably "Foxy Brown" and "Coffy" -- rocked a loose, round Afro that became a symbol of the black counterculture movement in the 1970s.

Michael Jackson

We all remember Michael Jackson's Jheri curls, but back in the day, the King of Pop sported a decidedly more au naturel look -- which included a well-kept globe of glorious hair. 

Sly Stone

A ceiling-grazing hairstyle wasn't enough for singer Sly Stone, frontman for funk-alicious '70s band Sly and the Family Stone. He paired his amorphous 'fro with fist-sized mutton chops.

Paris Fashion Week: A fluttery mesh at Valentino

In a season when everyone is showing the kind of feminine frills and bows that Valentino made his signatures, it is too bad that the house's new designers Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli could not have produced a more compelling collection.

The focal point was the short dress done in boudoir pale shades of sheer organza folded and draped into overly frilly meringues, creating the effect of the dress wearing the woman, rather than the other way around. Gowns were also overwrought with too much sheer mesh, and too many bows and sequins.

Sparkly sheer lace pants and T-shirts, and a leather jacket covered in sculpted roses seemed to be on the right track, as far as making the brand relevant to a new generation. But even the limited edition shoes, customized by milliner Philip Treacy with stiff lace frills jutting out the back, couldn't disguise that this was a collection thin on ideas.

-- Booth Moore

Photos: Valentino's Spring-Summer 2010 runway

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Photo: Valentino's Spring-Summer 2010 show. Photo credit: Peter Stigter & Jonas Gustavsson / For The Times

Paris Fashion Week: Sexuality lurks beneath the surface at Miuccia Prada's Miu Miu collection

There was a sly sexuality to Miuccia Prada's Miu Miu collection, shown in Paris on Wednesday to a packed house that included actress Renee Zellweger.

Like little Lolitas with long braids in their hair, Prada's models stalked around the runway in cropped jackets and slim-fitting pants in white-on-black panther or reclining nude prints. Meow!

The covetable, girlish prints showed up on clutch purses and chunky platform shoes with ankle straps, too -- should be money in the bank.

Dresses with white schoolgirl collars and pleated skirts were short and sweet, with decolletage-enhancing details such as satin bustiers and crystals arranged in designs that suggested chandeliers, hearkening back to the terrific spring Prada collection shown in Milan two weeks ago. Double score for Miuccia.

-- Booth Moore

Photos: Miu Miu's Spring-Summer 2010 runway

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Photo: Miu Miu's Spring-Summer 2010 collection. Credit: Miu Miu

Paris Fashion Week: Marc Jacobs celebrates individualism at Louis Vuitton

Isn't it ironic that Marc Jacobs, creative director of a multi-million dollar global luxury goods empire that lives or dies by the allure of having the newest LV bag, would use the Paris runway to showcase individual style?

That's exactly what he did at Louis Vuitton, sending out a tribe of stylish ragamuffins in overgrown Afro hairstyles, that looked as if they got creative with whatever was in their closets and headed out to strut their stuff.

Nothing appeared expensive, sparkly or particularly new (though of course, it all was). In fact, a few of the oversized messenger bags in a faded LV logo print denim looked as if they could have been a few years old. Call it inconspicuous consumption.

With the runway show webcast live on Facebook, it was only natural for Jacobs to tap into the new democracy of fashion online. But what were the clashing print jumpers, LV logo-ed spandex shorts and patchwork plaid jackets really saying? That your look and your handbag don't need to change every season.

It was as if aspirational took a small step back toward accessible.

-- Booth Moore

Photos: Louis Vuitton's Spring-Summer 2010 runway

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Photo: Louis Vuitton's Spring-Summer 2010 show. Credit: Peter Stigter & Jonas Gustavsson / For The Times

Paris Fashion Week: Want a French twist on minimalist classics? Try Yves Saint Laurent

Stefano Pilati is on a roll at Yves Saint Laurent. For spring, he built on his terrific fall collection, further establishing the house as the premiere destination for minimalist classics with a French twist.

YSL is the place to go for a white pantsuit that looks like no other--crisp pants and a jacket with ballooning sleeves and a double collar. There's the shirtdress that's a wardrobe staple, and then there was the one that became a thing of beauty in Pilati's hands, with a funnel neck, bow-tied in front, and a softly draped skirt. Even a basic black leather pencil skirt had a chic twist--subtle black dots.

This collection was intended to be a study in contrasts, the sharp tailoring of a white sleeveless jacket offset by the romance of decorative pinwheels of pleats, for example.

But there were things that didn't work, such as shorts with corset lacing over the tummy (because every woman wants to draw attention to that area), and a passage of blousy peasant dresses with strawberry embroideries that felt like a silly intrusion into an otherwise grown-up and sophisticated look.

-- Booth Moore 

Photos: Yves Saint Laurent's Spring-Summer 2010 runway

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Photo: Yves Saint Laurent's Spring-Summer 2010 runway. Photo credit: Peter Stigter & Jonas Gustavsson / For The Times

Paris Fashion Week: Alexander McQueen embraces his role as fashion’s reigning provocateur

It was a story of eco-evolution wrapped around an Atlantis theme, combining Hollywood film effects with the latest in digital technology. And it was the coolest spectacle to hit the Paris runway in a long time.

At the end of a month-long, multi-city runway season showcasing the Spring 2010 collections, Alexander McQueen -- a man whose imagination knows no bounds -- fully embraced his role as fashion’s reigning provocateur. He webcast his sci-fi fantasy live through a collaboration with director Nick Knight and Showstudio.com, turning it into an unmediated, international event, instant content for the blog and Twitter-sphere and a powerful advertisement.

Paris Fashion Week: Chloe's drab line of 1970s-era canyon chic

Chloe's Hannah MacGibbon didn't fully capitalize on the momentum of her last spring collection of crepe blazers and shorts with softly scalloped edges, which became a kind of uniform for young Hollywood this summer.

For her new spring collection, the impulse toward rustic chic was a timely one. And there was undoubtedly a whiff of those stylish, 1970s-era ladies of the canyon in cream gauze wrap dresses, tiered, pleated chiffon gowns, oatmeal-colored blanket capes, stirrup pants and buttoned-up shirts, worn with flat brown sandals.

But many of these clothes crossed the line from utilitarian to dull. And the suffocating heat in the venue didn't help people stay awake.

-- Booth Moore

Photos: Chloe's Spring-Summer 2010 runway

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Photo: On the runway at Chloe's Spring-Summer 2010 show. Credit: Peter Stigter & Jonas Gustavsson / For The Times

Paris Fashion Week: Givenchy walks the line of hard and soft, doesn't fall

Riccardo Tisci's collections for Givenchy have been uneven, but this season he showed a perfectly measured mix of hard and soft, primitive and frilly that should go a long way toward sealing the brand's reputation as a source not only for cool accessories, but also for cool clothes as well.

Jackets sharply cut in primitive-looking, zigzag prints were paired with crepe jumpsuits and platform boots with stingray toes or short dresses with tiers of decorative flounces and fans of fabric. Other dresses came draped in ethereal-looking, nude-colored knit, topped by vests embroidered in so many crystals they looked like rock candy. Cue the Olsen twins.

-- Booth Moore

Photos: Givenchy's Spring-Summer 2010 runway

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Photo: On the runway at Givenchy's Spring-Summer 2010 show. Credit: Peter Stigter & Jonas Gustavsson / For The Times

Paris Fashion Week: Chanel's high-class barn-raising

It was a Chanel show tailor-made for the fashiontainment era -- with a Hollywood-worthy set, celebrity guests (Prince!) and a surprise musical performance by Lily Allen that sent camera phones and tweets into overdrive.