A lineup of swingy, slightly 1970s coats at Chloe.

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Paris is a great place to shop for children's clothes. There are tons of intereseting little shops in the 7th arrondissement. One of my favorites is Soeur, a shop and line of clothing catering to girls' sizes 6-16. The idea is that both the younger sister and her older "tween" can find something cool to wear. Domitille Brion, the designer who opened the rue Bonaparte shop in partnership with her sister, Angelique, is an old friend of mine and one of the chicest Parisiennes I know. Her boho-cool clothes have attracted the attention of expert shoppers like Ines de La Fressange and Mathilde Agostinelli, both of whom buy the Soeur clothes for themselves, too. I love the way the store is styled and merchandised. Domitille painted the walls black which at first seemed slightly depressing to me, but when you go inside it totally works. Her new Soeur candle is black too, in a Duralex glass. I love the way she mixes up green gingham blouses with Hello Kitty Pez dispensers and canvas ballet slippers. An old yellow desk lamp she found at the flea market illuminates a pegboard display of vintage jeans and enameled tin tea cups.

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A head piece, shoes, and gauzy evening looks at John Galliano's show all had a folkloric feel.

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Giambattista Valli moonlights as a coat designer for Moncler's high-end Gamme Rouge collection and every season he does a really unique presentation. Last season it was in an artist's studio in the 14th Arrondissement. This season Valli brought us to the basement of the Paris Opera house, Napoleon III's enormous Palais Garnier. It felt like a dungeon the way Valli had outfitted the place with smoke, video installations that shot snowflakes across the ceilings, and even a live horse. The inspiration—a 1969 piece of performance art by Jannis Kounellis—felt a little far-fetched and I'm still not sure about the connection between 1960s performance art and down jackets, but what the heck? It was mysterious and intriguing to prowl through the corridors and suddenly come upon...a cluster of hand-crafted down coats carefully posed on mannequins. I also liked the male model props dressed in 19th century military garb and posed on military cots. The jackets had embroidery, fur lining, even long sweeping ball gown-style skirts. Some of the coats had fur linings and matching fur photo printed fabrics. At the end visitors were greeted by waiters holding plates of fresh raspberries and glasses of fresh raspberry juice. Valli has a unique touch.

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A backstage view.

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For her new fine jewelry collection for Dior, Victoire de Castellane created a giant jewelry box and filled it with some pretty amazing bijoux. I stopped by to see it on Monday morning. Victoire was receiving journalists up on the third floor of the Dior couture house on the Avenue Montaigne. The scale of her jewelry is so incredible, and then there is her fantastical imagination. The first thing she pointed out were two rows of enormous tourmalines the size of walnuts in pink or green. They are called "La Bague" and have those words written in diamonds around the setting. Victoire was wearing a knuckleduster with a voodoo-style skull on it, presumably carved out of Onyx. The most amazing part of this collection, though are the "Idylle aux Paradis" bracelets that can turn into brooches. Inspired by places like Fiji, Valparaiso, Borneo and the gardens of Kyoto, they have tiny animals, fish, creatures carved out of coral. My favorite one was the "Cyclade" which had a turquoise opal as the Mediterranean sea and a coral fish swimming around it. When I asked Victoire if she had traveled to all of these exotic destinations she just laughed and shook her fringe of hair.

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This was one of my favorite headlines when I worked at Women's Wear Daily in Paris in the late 1980s. I don't know why, but it still makes me laugh and occasionally I try to reincorporate it when I can. Quelle coincidence, then, that this season it happens to apply to the runway shows once again as designers from Christian Lacroix to Olivier Theyskens showed strong, sharp pantsuits. Karl Lagerfeld showed a trio of them at Chanel yesterday, worn with snug tweed jackets.

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Last night Amanda Harlech, Karl Lagerfeld's muse, described this morning's Chanel show as "immaculate." "It's a new departure, it's completely streamlined and classical," she said during a fitting in the house's studio. She wasn't kidding. Under the soaring roof of the Grand Palais, Lagerfeld presented an almost entirely black and white Chanel collection this morning--one green tweed suit, a green pair of pants and a pink sweater aside. And, except for one lone pink jade and gold necklace punctuated with double C's, there wasn't a logo in sight. The stage was set this time as an abstract interior with models walking through sets of rooms (the walls had Chanel logos), playing off against last season's brilliant rue Cambon street scene. As Harlech explained it, the concept behind this collection was to create a sleek black base that could be added to. And so the frilly chiffon cuffs and collars on the black wool dresses, suits, and even some of the evening looks, were removable. In this economy, two looks for the price of one might not be such a bad idea. Accessories were also monochromatic with the majority of the shoes in black, some with a green jade ring in the heel. The only real handbag was a cheeky take on Barbie packaging with the classic Chanel quilted bag ensconced in a plastic set complete with lipstick, powder, perfume, and an iPod.

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Designers unanimously voted out last season's romantic flounces and prints for a more armored, tailored and distinctly Parisian look for fall 2009. Here, a rundown of the top ten: