a little turn on the catwalk

There may have been snow on the ground in Paris's Jardin des Tuileries, but inside Dior's nearly invisible mirrored tent, Spring was in full bloom. Hedges designed by landscape artist Martin Wirtz provided the path to a meandering runway, while near-naked branches culled from just-awoken trees offered a romantic, Secret Garden scene.

The first look out was a swirling, strapless confection in icy chiffon accented with a slash of black satin above the bust. The model, with her pixie-cut hair, airy swagger, and glittering red lips, called to mind a flittering wood nymph. Soon more nymphs arrived; most wore sleekly corseted gowns that exploded from the waist in dramatic, full flares or asymmetrically draped folds. In pastel silk, iridescent organza, or whisper-weight chiffon, everything felt softly natural yet utterly restrained — even as more elaborate looks like floral embroidered jackets, voluminous car coats, and bubble-hemmed dresses covered in sparkling petal appliqué began to appear.

"The collection reflects the passing of time of the season, beginning as the signs of early life," the show notes explained. "Silhouettes are in flux, seemingly finding their own forms naturally and yet all expertly tended to and under control." Like a well-manicured garden under the tentative warmth of early Spring — or maybe like Raf Simons's intoxicating updates on classic Dior.

For her Spring 2013 Couture collection, Donatella Versace imposed the high-impact codes of her house — bright colors, intricate appliques, lots of skin — on strong-shouldered suits, slinky gowns, and minidresses whose hems started at mid-thigh but ended up skimming the floor.

But for all the body-conscious and curve-hugging pieces she sent down the runway (staged underneath the glass dome of the old Paris bank Le Centorial), this offering had a surprising amount of geometry in it. Kristen McMenamy opened the show in a black suit with gold pinstripes, and that linear motif was repeated elsewhere in the collection with pleated skirts, the parallel lines of quilting on a few leather motorcycle jackets, and the slim strokes of fur sewn onto a vest and a denim minidress decorated with bits of metal.

Other embellishments here included oversize crystals tucked just inside those many pleats, and neon leather tubing used to give a little structure and a lot of edge to some of the simpler dresses Versace showed. But even those dresses were fitted with pieces of mesh that showed off their wearer's legs and thighs.

After infusing a modern femininity into nuns' habits for Spring 2013, Riccardo Tisci created a decidedly more masculine offering for Pre-Fall. His daywear tended toward sharp, clean lines and colorblocking, and pieces that lean on menswear staples (the notch-lapel cape in gray wool is a perfect example of this). That's not to say there weren't frills: a geometric appliqué decorated the edges of dresses and a sporty camel bomber jacket, and lace accents appeared on pants, skirts, and sweaters.

The evening pieces carried a little more flounce, attributable to the ruching technique used mainly on skirts, and to the controlled addition of ruffles.

Photo courtesy of Givenchy.

Alber Elbaz created a veritable zoo of looks for his Pre-Fall 2013 offering, combining a variety of animal prints with lots of fur. Leopard was the predominant animal here, applied to everything from boots to bags, gloves, and more than one coat. One such piece of outerwear was decorated with black and white beads in a floral pattern, while others were simply — yet lavishly — adorned with a fur lapel. But the wilder pieces in this collection were just as wearable as their solid-colored cousins, which counted a sleeveless gray wool coatdress and a black dress with a leather skirt among their number.

Photo courtesy of Lanvin

Phoebe Philo toyed with traditional ideas of shape, proportion, and tailoring in her Pre-Fall 2013 collection. She started off with double-breasted suits that borrowed largely from conventional menswear tropes but finished them with decidedly feminine pearl buttons. Other details, like golden belt buckles the size of small books and saddle shoes turned into soaring platform wedges, were just as eye-catching. But the oversize jackets — made large by inflating shoulder seams and lapels — may have been this offering's most striking statement.

Photo courtesy of Céline

Is there any party like a Stella McCartney pre-collection party? As she's done before, the designer brought her Pre-Fall offering to New York City and presented it as part of a lavish cocktail party. This week's event at the Americas Society drew a number of McCartney's boldfaced fans: Anna Wintour, Garance Doré, and Glenn Close were spotted in the crowd, and so were Alec Baldwin, his wife Hilaria Thomas, and Jessica and Jerry Seinfeld.

But not even stars that bright could outshine the models or what they were wearing: Hanne Gaby Odiele, for example, was spotted sitting on a comfortable-looking chair. If she weren't dressed in head-to-toe McCartney, she would have looked like any other chic partygoer.

That might be because the clothes themselves were designed, in McCartney's words, to "address every need of the modern woman's wardrobe." Odiele's dress was a long-sleeved gown in black and white, but the collection featured plenty of functional coats (some double-breasted varietals feature lapels so wide they span their wearer's shoulders) and no shortage of well-tailored separates. The tone-on-tone floral prints in oxblood and dark blue add visual interest, and so do the stripes in black, white, orange, and red.

A few pictures from the party below, as well as the full collection, here in the gallery.

Source: Getty

The phrase "modern elegance" often calls to mind tired interior design tropes, but that's not the case with Thakoon Panichgul's Pre-Fall 2013 collection.

In this offering, the designer tried to reinterpret what elegance means right now and found that "for elegance to make sense in a modern, working context, it has to be speedier." That means casting aside opera gloves and costume jewels in favor of clothing women could run around in.

It explains the easy-to-wear A-line dresses, made out of everything from gray wool to pink leather. Some of the coats were generously tailored, too, and one featured a cotton-field print that's used in a variety of garments. There's also plenty of texture: Mongolian fur vests and navy-blue leather pieces gave the collection a luxurious edge.

For Erin Fetherston, Pre-Fall dressing means making the most of the balmy days at the end of Summer. In her latest offering, a recent trip to Los Roques — a group of islands off the coast of Venezuela — informed the tropical color palette and the use of pattern. For example, one multicolored print depicting a stylized ecosystem of people, trees, homes, and butterflies got cut into a sleeveless shirt and a dress.

Of course, shoppers can always expect fun dresses from Fetherston, and this offering doesn't disappoint on that front. A sparkly, strapless pink-and-gold pleated number was eye-catching and fun, but some of the other evening pieces (one combined a black bodice with a gold-spangled skirt covered by a layer of organza) were a little more grown-up. The few separates, like a pair of slim trousers and a sleeveless black peplum top, preserved that sense of polish.

Photo: Thomas Kletecka courtesy of Erin Fetherston.

Is that Holly Golightly we see? For Giulietta's Pre-Fall 2013 collection, Sofia Sizzi looked to Audrey Hepburn's wardrobe in Breakfast at Tiffany's for inspiration. Sizzi was already a fan of simple '60s silhouettes, but she freshened them up with gradient jewel prints and light-handed embellishments. A bright pink short-sleeved dress with a full crinoline skirt made for some serious fun, and so did her homage to Golightly's cat, who got immortalized in a green-and-black print.

Photos courtesy of Giulietta