Paris Couture AW 2012-13: Sunday and Monday

Paris couture week kicked off with a bang on Sunday with Donatella Versace's first couture runway show in seven years, and the juxtaposition between the just-finished menswear shows and Versace's full-blown sexual femininity was hard to ignore.

Beautiful corset gowns and bandage dresses were constructed with tiny slivers of super-shiny silk in pastel colours and multi-coloured prints. There were macs worn with waist-accentuating wrestler belts and perforated leather sitting side-by-side with soft flowing silk. The show was classic Versace: cut-out detailing, tight form-fitting dresses and bold colours; Jessica Alba summed up the show perfectly: "sexy, strong, warrior."

Vogue

Versace's theme of utter femininity was carried through into Raf Simons' debut collection for Dior, though here the unabashed sex seen at Versace was replaced with pure elegance. There was a modesty and grace to proceedings, with dresses and coats worn below-the-knee and lower.

Waists and hips were accentuated by architectural styling and large pockets, modernising the classic 50s couture silhouette. There were full-skirted strapless gowns seemingly cut off at the upper thigh and worn with cigarette trousers instead. Heavy embroidery and pastel colours were matched with sharp tailoring: truly modern twists on timeless classics.

Vogue

Simons' modest elegance was embraced by Giambattista Valli too, in what was only his second ever couture show. There was a bucolic fairytale theme floating through this collection: romantic ruffles, watercolour floral prints, and hues of red and green.

But the dream-like whimsy threatened to choke the models, whose dresses at times appeared overly fussy and stuffy; ruffles reached, and indeed surpassed, Elizabethan proportions and veils covered the models' faces. Beneath the ostentatious embellishments were classic silhouettes: knee-length pencil dresses and full-skirted ballgowns in pretty prints with appliquéd embellishments.

Vogue