Haute Couture Collections Spring-Summer 2012

Here, in the most luxurious district of Paris, the venerated French fashion house Dior unveils its latest collection. Models dressed in diaphanous layers of silk flitted through the opulent salons of the atelier on avenue Montaigne… an intimate setting for its catwalk presentation.

With Dior sales thriving, there’s been no rush to announce the successor to John Galliano. For now, stand-in designer Bill Gaytten, Galliano’s former right hand man, is holding up the fort brilliantly. After all, the British designer worked at Dior for more than a decade.

This season, Gaytten renewed Dior classics from its iconic 1947 collection. Think ladylike silhouettes and feminine layers of silk. A dose of sensuality in an otherwise classic collection…

And the long wait is finally over as Versace makes a triumphant return to Paris Haute Couture Week at the Ecole des Beaux Arts with a collection designed by Donatella Versace. The Italian label hasn’t shown on the couture circuit since 2004.

Italian designer Maurizio Galante doesn’t simply create clothes, he creates works of art. His Spring 2012 couture collection presented at the Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale seemed to defy the laws of gravity.

Maurizio Galante tends to weave, braid and patch fabrics together rather than cutting and sewing.

In order to stay alive today, Haute Couture needs a little more than products: it needs to provide an element of fantasy.