Kate Moss and Freida Pinto turn out for Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel show

The last day of Paris Fashion Week did not disappoint, with spectacular displays from Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel and the British designer Alexander McQueen. Swarms of paparazzi attended the Chanel show, and security guards had their work cut out protecting the A-list attendees, who included Kate Moss and boyfriend Jamie Hince, Slumdog Millionaire starlet Freida Pinto, Bond girl Olga Kurylenko, British pop queen Lily Allen and uber-photographer Mario Testino (pictured above with Hince, Moss and Claudi Schiffer).

After that hullabaloo came the clothes, which Lagerfeld claims were inspired by Beau Brummell, the Regency dandy and the man credited with inventing the man’s suit. Because the designs were for women, the line was dubbed 'Belle Brummell' - a range of jaunty creations embellished with lace, chiffon and cameo-broached collars and cuffs and complimented by flat-topped boater-style hats.

But the piece de resistance was a twist on Chanel’s legendary cardigan jacket which, according to the Daily Telegraph’s fashion writer Hilary Alexander, returned to what had first inspired it - "knitted in baby-pink wool, turned into a truncated bolero-style, accessorised with matching leg-warmers, armlets, oversized scarves and even the Chanel hat."
 
While this was great stuff, many thought it was eclipsed by Alexander McQueen’s collection, which attracted hoops and whistles of approval from the assembled fashionistas. Working with a palette of graphic black, red and white, McQueen took staples like the skirt suit and the strapless cocktail dress and added his trademark risque twist - one gown was made entirely from black feathers, with its sculpted bouffant sleeves suggesting a swan hurtling into flight.
 
At one point a heap of rubbish was dumped on the catwalk and models, their faces covered in white and their mouths an oversized smear of red lipstick, a la Heath Ledger in the last Batman movie, picked their way around it like slum-dwelling scavengers searching for food. A nod, perhaps, to the recession.
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