“Couture is having fun,” said Giorgio Armani. And the guests at Armani Privé felt it.

At Dior, Maria Grazia Chiuri was inspired by a dress that Christian Dior debuted in 1952.

A ballet influence was on full display at Virginie Viard’s Chanel.

At Fendi, Kim Jones’s clothing was accompanied by eyewear from Delfina Delettrez Fendi.

Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli is a colorist to rival Matisse.

Circus Act

At the couture collections in Paris, the dazzling runway shows were met with even more frenzied activity on the streets

written and illustrated by David Downton

En route to Paris in mid-January, I calculated that this would be my 50th season attending the couture collections, which are held twice a year. That’s a lot of paper and a lot of ink.

Much has changed over a turbulent quarter-century in a business not known for sentiment. “In fashion, the camel shits and the caravan moves on,” a lugubrious friend advised me on that first, long-ago trip. Oui et non. At couture, some things remain: the operatic intensity of the most inspired shows, the head-spinning craft of the workrooms on which the whole edifice rests, the sense that here is a chance for designers to slip the leash and, perchance, to dream.