The Blushing Bride Thing Is Over

French fashion shows have traditionally ended with a bride gracing the runway. But while many establishment designers have abandoned that quaint finale, some of the least orthodox ones continue it, albeit nontraditionally.

Jean Paul Gaultier’s bride wore white taffeta--in front, at least. Her full skirt angled from the floor all the way up to the waist in back, where a bouquet of lilies stuck out of her thong. And just in case anyone missed that detail, the bride mooned the photographers. The show was held at a sleazy old theater in the city’s red light district. A coincidence?

At Vivienne Westwood’s show, a blindfolded bride emerged, her wrists bound with satin ribbon.

Here’s Mud in Your Part: Fortunately, there is no connection between the styling of models’ hair on the catwalk and real life. With that understood, tufts of clowny frizz and Princess Leia braids caked with reddish clay can be appreciated as purely aesthetic.

But as outlandish as runway makeup often is, it does anticipate beauty trends.

The models at Cerruti wore chrome-yellow eye shadow and plummy lipstick. Smoky eyes and glistening copper lips diluted the sweetness of Valentino’s collection. The look at Chanel was natural, with pale, peachy lips and lightly blushed cheeks.

In Milan, makeup artist Francois Nars, the man backstage at both the Istante and Versace shows, chose to highlight one feature. At Versace, eye makeup was dark and intense, but lips were pale. Eye makeup and blush were junked at Istante, where burgundy-stained lips were the focus.

It’s a Guy Thing: A few years ago, Donna Karan plundered her husband’s closet, and the oversized boyfriend jacket was born. Borrowing from the boys is back. The plain-front, straight-leg trousers with two rear pockets shown in black throughout Ann Demeulemeester’s show were just like a guy’s slacks worn a size or two too large.

Don’t Leave Home Without It: Packing cosmetics for anything from a weekend trip to a major sojourn requires judicious editing. Rather than face the messy business of transferring goop into little travel-sized containers, I prefer to pare down to essentials. That means moisturizer with SPF and mascara follow a straight line to the carry-on bag. As much as I love Kiehl’s Pineapple Papaya Facial Scrub, it doesn’t make the cut. Ditto for scalp treatment oils, hydrating masks and foot massage cream.

But Chanel’s Active Body Polisher, a grainy green scrub that’s used in the shower, and Multi-Hydroxy Active Body Moisturizer won’t be left home next time. I’d employed the two miracle workers in a campaign to smooth the skin on my upper body. Not long into a three-week trip to Europe, I felt the return of those annoying little bumps. U.S. Customs officials don’t check for soft shoulders, but I missed the Chanel treatments, which come in convenient plastic tubes. They’ll add only seven ounces to my luggage next time I’m on the road.

Sometimes They’re Big: An exhibition of the Little Black Dress at Printemps, the Parisian department store, continues until Oct. 26. Fifty haute couture dresses, from the 1920s to the ‘70s, were borrowed from the private collection of an antique couture dealer. Copies of some of the designs are for sale, beginning at about $250.

Although some of the styles are timeless, such as an Yves Saint Laurent pleated shirtwaist from 1972, the most charming of the dresses, beautifully displayed on mannequins in a mini-museum in the store, were very much of their time. Small-waisted, full-skirted dresses from the ‘50s and a hard-edged triangle of a dress by Courreges from the ‘60s defined their eras.