Paris Fashion Week: Battle of the boudoirs at Zac Posen, Rochas and Nina Ricci

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There’s been a boudoir theme in several of the early collections at Paris Fashion Week. But the woman behind the dressing room door has taken vastly different forms.

The desperate mistress:

At Zac Posen’s show, his first in Paris, things got off to a strong start with lace insets spiraling around pants legs, a twisted black and white ombre silk dress that appeared as if it had been sprayed on the body, feather boleros and salt and pepper tweed jackets.

But then the Folies Bergere-style details really started to pile on--eye-shaped embroideries, snake-like lace, feathers that looked as if they had been hastily applied. It was the come-on that came on way too strong.

The mum in need of a makeover:

At Rochas, designer Marco Zanini went the other direction and hit Frumpsville, with 1930s, dropped-waist silk wallpaper floral print gowns and pajama pants, shapeless coats and housedresses, all worn with knee highs and head scarves. Sex appeal? No. An excuse not to shave your legs and wash your hair? Maybe.

The young wife:

Nina Ricci’s Peter Copping struck the perfect balance of sexy and sensual, practical and pretty, pairing a black-and-white lace bandage skirt with a simple men’s button-down shirt, for example, and sleeveless leather blouse in a print inspired by the house’s famous Lalique perfume bottle, with an everyday taupe cotton poplin paperbag waist skirt.

Softly tailored jackets and matching skirts with playful asymmetrical ruffles made for a more feminine spin on the suit. Just the thing to take a woman from lunch with friends, to dinner with her honey--and whatever comes next.

--Booth Moore in Paris

Photos, top: Looks from the Zac Posen Spring-Summer 2011 runway collection shown during Paris Fashion Week. Credit: Jonas Gustavsson & Peter Stigter / For The Times.

Photos, middle: Looks from the Rochas Spring-Summer 2011 runway collection shown during Paris Fashion Week. Credit: Jonas Gustavsson & Peter Stigter / For The Times.

Photos, bottom: Looks from the Nina Ricci Spring-Summer 2011 runway collection shown during Paris Fashion Week. Credit: Jonas Gustavsson & Peter Stigter / For The Times.