Threads of Thought

But beautiful clothes, the kind that set off a melody in your head, never bore.

John Galliano transformed an empty market shed into an exquisite bacchanal with banquet tables covered in candles, live chickens nestled in a pen, well-fed matrons enjoying a glass of wine at cafe tables, a giant pig sculpture wearing a top hat, and urns overflowing with hydrangeas. It was a chaotic mishmash of decades and themes forming one gloriously decadent backdrop for a collection of the most exuberantly romantic dresses in Paris.

Galliano excels at bias cuts and the ability to stitch longing and melancholy into a floor-sweeping gown. A navy dress thick with layers of silk had a pleated collar that wrapped around the shoulders like an elaborate cape. A tailored evening coat with fur lapels was appliqued with oversize flowers along the hem.

Galliano understands fashion's ability to transport a woman to a place of fanciful indulgence. While other designers use hocus-pocus to deliver a woman to a place of brooding contemplation, Galliano believes in taking her into a fantasy she never knew her imagination could conjure.

Lanvin

While Galliano weaves blissfully impossible dreams, designer Alber Elbaz creates dark, passionate visions that are all the more enticing because they seem possible. He focused on the roots of the Lanvin label and incorporated oversize sleeves, exaggerated tucks, paper-bag waists and lush collars that gently brush the cheeks like soft petals.

Elbaz can make a woman believe that it is possible and natural to move through her day dressed in a violet silk sheath with self-conscious seams and articulated hips. He evokes a flower in the silhouette and drape of a dress, but he does not turn a woman into a Jeff Koons sculpture. Elbaz's fabrics caress the body. His exaggerated back seams ripple down the spine like a waterfall of silk.

The collection that Elbaz presented Sunday evening was not filled with frothy, girlish glee. It was more complex than that and more subtle. There was some surface decoration, but merely jet beads or tarnished crystals. Like a vintage red wine that has to be decanted, these clothes are meant to last and be savored. They'll get better with each wearing as their ease, versatility and sophistication become more apparent.

So much of what has been presented on the runway this season was meant for immediate consumption and quick obsolescence. Elbaz created a collection that is good now, but will only get better.