Joan Smalls covers the new W Korea in Burberry Prorsum
TFS

I love how chameleonic Joan Smalls is. She is one of the few models who is just as versatile on the runway as in editorial. I love how after covering the July issue of the American version of W with a romantic and girly vibe she can transform into a tough girl for the August cover of W Korea. And I love that she does it wearing one of my favourite pieces from the FW12 collections – the Burberry Prorsum trench with the Prince of Wales tweed peplum.

It's also nice to see what is clearly only the first of many FW12 Burberry pieces styled in a sexier way than at the show. But you can always count on Joan to add a sexy edge to everything she does.

Coco Lagerfeld

If I didn't know any better I would have thought Karl Lagerfeld's mind had been on holiday for the last two seasons. His last couple of collections for Chanel were undeniably innovative but one could hardly see any of Gabrielle Chanel's essence in them. For SS11 the Kaiser has changed that. He disobeyed last season's pas de noir rule, purposely avoided colour blocking and payed a visit to the house's archives. The collection wasn't fashion-forward, it was current —something very few people can achieve— and it combined traditional tweeds and camellia prints with modern materials from around the world. The absence of yeti attire called for a different type of extravagance, which came in the shape of outstanding workmanship very close to that of couture. Hair was substituted by feather embroidery and taken to the extreme on the apricot ostrich feather look worn by Karmen Kass.

Everything was framed by a modern take of a jardin français, which took over the Petit Palais, fountains included. Over 80 models strolled around the garden. Anja Rubik, Abbey Lee Kershaw and Freja Beha Erichsen were joined by Brad Koenig (son in hand), Baptiste Giabiconi and even Inès de la Fressange, who hadn't walked for Chanel in decades.

I'm off.

[Pictures: Style.com]

the return of the yeti

It is funny how it never occurred to Kaiser Karl that this moment would come, even for him. The probability theory proves that, even with the best skills, winning every time is just not possible. If Lagerfeld thought we would simply shiver in awe at his signature on the Chanel label, he thought wrong. Chanel's FW10 was a very unrealistic show —an über-amusing one— that scarcely provided the surmised dose of tweed and proved that even the biggest and most established can have delirious of grandeur. While other designers gave preference to practicality before lavishness, even jeopardising a considerable part of his "classics", the Chanel tweed pieces displayed to please the eye but not the wearer.

Shoes and boots walked the runway in the shape of drenched heeled yeti footwear and matronly boots that were an unsuccessful intent to reinvent the black and white Chanel boot.

Menswear, which at Chanel has always been merely indulgent, this time seemed more like an opportunity to display Baptiste Giabiconi and Brad Koenig. Karl has said of Giabiconi, his muse, that he looks just as good with clothes as he does undressed. If we judge by the way he dressed at Chanel, well, make your own conclusions.

The only part that I did love about the whole collection were, apart from the jewellery, these tweed covers for hot water bottles. I predict an it-bag hit for Sundance and future icy fashion weeks the likes of this past one.

[Pictures: Style.com]

I'm off.