The French
Collection

BY JANE CRYSTAL

N

ine young tuxedoed mini.
cons take their places on
the gilded platform, to the
side of the stage. They
quickly take up violins, but the classical
melody is scarcely heard over the
sounds of 800 international guests
making their entrance into the ornate
Salle Opera inside the Grand Hotel of
Pans.
Behind the stage, a crew of 80 work
frantically to prepare the 20 models, in,
evitably the tallest girls in the business,
for their first stroll down the runway and
for the many changes of clothes, make•
up and hairstyles that will follow. Lists,
diagrams and Polaroid shots of acces•
soriK a«) taped to the wall within each
of the 20 dressing areas, outlining each
detail of each outfit,

'if

first-hand report
haute couture, the
II debut of the
rld's most
pensive clothes.

Three examples of the

artful mixing of colors
and shapes from Ungaro,

Alexander, the famed Parisian coif
tour who has designed the hairstyle for
ea ch 0(Afit, paces the roam in figure.
4191-1t•Ilko, patterns as the strangely ex
()tic, long -limbed women are painted,
PuOPPed and propped Meanwhile,
some 200 photographers guard their
position:, On the ttgIVYaY qr on the
crowded enter ikroeril it the end of the

catwalk )(icing with each other while

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