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Alessandra Facchinetti’s first Valentino collection at Paris Fashion Week

A designer’s first collection after the departure of the house’s originator always draws the rubberneckers waiting to see the young upstart fly or fall. It happened when Yves Saint Laurent took over for Christian Dior in 1957, again when Tom Ford took over at YSL in ‘99, and now as Alessandra Faccinetti takes over for Valentino, the hawk-like eyes of the fashion world are upon her.

Would there be pieces to satisfy both the ladies who lunch and the pretty young things?

Would there be any red carpet worthy gowns?

Would she dabble in Valentino iconography and attempt a red dress?

Yes, yes, and yes.

Her color palette? Muted. Midnight blues, creamy silks, rich oatmeal cashmere — all chicly over black tights.

I loved the cut of her coats. You could choose from a beige cropped coat with a high collar that buttoned on the shoulder and left a V cutout in the front or a more voluminous brown coat with arm cutouts or a simple black coat over a frothy pink dress that spilled out of the neckline and peeked out at the knee.

Facchinetti’s skill is in soft, almost unnoticed details — the belts that nipped in the waist of delicate dresses, the ruffled pleating that gave a modern turn to a filmy, chiffon blouse.

Look, this isn’t Valentino’s Valentino. Alessandra Faccinetti  ushers in a new era and it will be interesting to see how a female designer uses her influence and puts her fingerprint on the Valentino woman.

Liya Kebede for Lanvin Fall 2008 at Paris Fashion Week

Ooh la la Lanvin! Thank god I didn’t have to go negative for too long. Alber Elbaz gave me beautiful dresses to drool over and plenty to gush about.

Like Givenchy, accessories went bold with chunky necklaces worn one, two or as many as your delicate neck can carry.

Of course, jewelry wasn’t the only thing that was shining. My favorite pieces were the sumptuous gilded cocktail dresses that made me break out a pen to calculate exactly how many eggs I would have to sell in order to get my hands on one. The shiny, happy sophisticated theme carried over to gilded bolero jackets paired with black trousers.

Other pieces were more understated. There were deceptively simple dresses like a one-shoulder blue dress constructed in pleated strips of silk or a similarly constructed dress in oatmeal.

So lavish, and so Lanvin.

Miu Miu Fall 2008 at Paris Fashion Week

Dateline Milan

Two weeks before Paris Fashion Week

Those sweet boys from swim team Italia have made off with the entire Miu Miu collection. All we have left is swimcaps and wetsuits!

Paris awaits. What to do?

Miuccia

This is the only scenario that can explain away such a poor showing for Miu Miu. I have never seen a collection so exceedingly unfeminine and unappealing from Miuccia.

What could buyers possibly choose from this collection?

The Fall/Winter ‘08 Miu Miu collection completely abandoned the young fashionistas who wear her diffusion collection, landing on a sportif theme that had models wearing shapeless tunic dresses and one-piece, scuba-like pieces. Everything was styled with skintight swimcaps.

The single good thing I could pluck out of this collection is the model’s initials on the clothes, but I’m from the South and we’ll monogram the hell out of anything.

The girls at Givenchy raided the jewelry box and piled on enough gold chains to rival A-team ace boon Mister T. Chunky jewelry was a theme that ran throughout Paris Fashion Week, but few did it better than Ricardo Tisci.

Tisci wove a very Catholic influence throughout the collection with gold crosses, heavy black lace, and more crosses inset onto filmy, transparent blouses. I loved the stark and somber mood enhanced by gold against his beautifully tailored ebony pantsuits.

Chanel Iman for John Galliano Fall 2008 at Paris Fashion Week

More than any other designer, John Galliano has a flair for the dramatic. His runway shows aren’t so much fashion shows as theatrical productions. Yet, he rides the line and manages not to make his clothes stray into the area of costuming.

For F/W ‘08, Galliano is one of the few designers in love with color — not just print — full on Technicolor dreamscapes. His clothes were wonderful explosions of juicy orange, rich reds and vibrant shades of blue.

He hit the ’20’s and 30’s with flapper-inspired dresses including a midnight blue creation with a full skirt of feathers. So gorg! Models were often topped with glorious feather headpieces and oversized knit hats. It was all wonderfully crazed Galliano, but also absolutely wearable.

One thing I hope John Galliano isn’t trying to bring back is Hammer pants because I will resist him with every fiber of my being.