The last of the big international Fashion Weeks, all eyes were on Paris and in particular Valentino and Dior who under new creative heads showcased their most important collections of the season. 

Valentino 

Quite possibly the most star studded event of any design house of the international fashion weeks, Valentino was a veritable who’s who of Hollywood and the fashion industry. 

It seems like sometimes breaking up is the best thing to do. After nearly a quarter of a century working together, Pierpaolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri showed collections separately. He stayed with Valentino (where they worked as a unit for 17 years) and she moved to Dior. For both any questions or doubts about their abilities to perform individually were put to rest with their respective collections. 

Jessica Alba at Valentino 

Piccioli’s vision of Valentino remained intact losing none of its romance and artistry. Filled with red carpet worthy dresses in black, red and bold hues with the familiar silhouette (round-necked, elongated, with narrow shoulders and sleeves), albeit a little looser and more fluid than it has been in the past. 

Christian Louboutin (left) and Mika (right) at Valentino 

The elaborate embroidery Valentino is known for remained, though this time around it was often abstracted into simple stitching, like etchings on silk, or transformed into a print.  Also, red, the original Valentino shade, now mutated into pink and fuchsia and burgundy. 

Dakota Fanning (left) and Lily Collins (right) at Valentino 

The newest thing on the runway though was a little portable make-up case on a gold chain (or mini bag?) slung across a shoulder, an announcement of the brand’s first cosmetic? A note to “Rockstud” fans, they’re still key in the Valentino arsenal. 

Dior 

For the first time in its seventy year history, the house of Dior has a female creative director in Maria Grazia Chiuri. Chiuri now holds one of the biggest jobs in fashion: Dior brings in combined annual revenues of around €5bn, of which a big chunk is Grazia Chiuri’s responsibility. 

The house in recent years has weathered the scandal of John Galliano’s racist outburst and subsequent dismissal, and the resignation of designer Raf Simons (Galliano’s successor, who resigned last October after almost four years). Financially, its growth of late has been stunted: Dior reported a lackluster 2 per cent growth in revenues in the fiscal year until July 1 2016. With Grazia Chiuri’s appointment come great expectations. 

“I think fashion is about change. Fashion is about revolution. And I think that revolutionary is a woman. I’m a little bit feminist because I’m a woman at Dior and so I wanted to speak about the women in a different way.” said Maria Grazia Chiuri. 

She had six weeks to create this collection, so was working under the same kind of time pressure as Simons when he took over in the wake of John Galliano’s infamous departure. But without more time to absorb the extraordinary archives at Dior, it was inevitable that Chiuri would fall back on what she was familiar with from her time at Valentino. 

The designs that first came out, came out fighting. Combative, even. The looks introduced a score of fencing variations: some models wore leather gillets over formidable white shirts, some wore quilt vests with straight black trousers, others a peaked visor hat, or with long white tiered tulle. The looks were fresh yet had a strange formality - a sporty uniform in which to cut through the crap of the world. Most were worn with branded lingerie, black straps saying: “J’adior Christian Dior” - equal parts chic and street. 

So the first half of the show featured sporty daywear, slogan T-shirts, sharp monochromatic tailoring and severe, simple gowns, the second indulged a more romantic spirit: a collection of delicate, feminine, tulle dresses embroidered with tarot-card illustrations and stars. The stars were a favoured motif of Christian Dior’s (he was famously superstitious), but such celestial themes were also reminiscent of the dresses she delivered so beautifully at Valentino. 

Christian Dior might feel the latest chapter in the history of the house he founded seventy years was written in the stars. Like him, Maria Grazia Chiuri, the creative director newly arrived from Valentino, is an Aquarius. 

She also shares a birthday with Victoire de Castellane, the woman responsible for Dior’s successful jewellery collection. There were astrologers who felt the dawning of the Aquarian Age would bring upheaval, rather than peace and love. There were also others who felt that, as “the house of the woman,” Aquarius would initiate an age of feminism. “We should all be feminists”, the title of Chimanda Ngozi Adichchie 2014 essay also formed powerful words at Dior emblazoned on T-shirts. 

Of her collection it reflected real women said Grazia Chiuri. “Women don’t want to be only one way. In the morning you might want to be very basic, tonight fairy princess, another time to be a little bit sexy. I’m the same myself. I want to use clothes to give my point of view, but at the same time I like that women use my pieces to create their own personal style. I don’t want to impose something. I want to have a dialogue, to ask them what they want.” 

Chloe 

Urban, simple and effortless would sum up Clare Waight Keller Collection, as creative director of the extremely Parisian house of Chloé. “I’ve been looking at the essence of French style, the women on the metro, and in daily life. And I wanted to bring that same easy simplicity and relevance into the collection.” 

Simplicity and relevance can seem a little out of the ordinary at a house known for its voluminous, floaty, romantic silhouettes. Chloe mixed the real with the romantic in this collection and Waight Keller understands that the Chloe woman loves a billowing pastel gown, and they were featured in the collection’s closing looks in Chloé’s “foundation colours”, a palette of powdery blues and browns. 

Her collection was also inspired by the nonchalant French style with tailoring as the key message. High-waisted pants were comfortable and free, while suit trousers rode low on the hips. Nautical notes were intersperesed throughout the collection as seen through sailor ropes, buttons, and of course, the Breton stripe. 

“I used a lot of the classic French colours: navy, cream, black and white, for freshness,” said Waight Keller. Overall, it was a darker, more sober summer collection, much of which was very chic. 

If there is one thing Chloé fans always look forward to at every show, it's the bags. This season saw a new shape and size: A micro half moon saddle bag with a ring handle and for those of us who love the Chloe aesthtic but hate the price tag, don’t fret Chloe is a firm favourite for high street stores and other designers to be “inspired” by!