Calling Mr. DeMille

Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York TimesVersace spring 2012 couture.

Versace was on the Quai Malaquais, so I went there at 10:30 a.m., killing a few minutes at the nearby Dries Van Noten shop to look at sale pieces and splash on some perfume. There was a crowd outside Versace, though nothing like the crowd that would be waiting at Dior a few hours later.

Couture Fashion

Cathy Horyn’s reports from the haute couture shows in Paris.

I stood behind Jay Fielden, the editor of Town & Country, and after a perplexing few minutes we were permitted to go inside the building, as though we were not quite welcome. There, behind a heavy curtain, we joined an even larger group of people (mostly editors) waiting to go into the presentation room. Naturally there was some grumbling — “This doesn’t seem very couture” — and so forth. Through the tall glass doors one could see the flashes of cameras. The photographers had been asked to come earlier. Once they were finished, the doors opened and we were herded inside.

A golden podium with twelve steps had been erected in the center of the room, with velvet-roped stanchions placed in front of the shimmering structure. The crowd obediently stood behind the ropes. As I moved to the side for a better view, a public relations person beckoned me and a few other writers to the backstage area, which was directly behind the podium. It was alive with models and photographers, and I saw Donatella Versace. But I didn’t really understand what was happening: The presentation hadn’t started, yet from the scene in the back it seemed to have ended. I returned to the front and found a spot along the wall to stand.

Soon, the actresses Cameron Diaz and Diane Kruger, among other celebrities, appeared in their Versace outfits and politely stood between the velvet ropes and the podium.

Karlie Kloss was the first model to descend, wearing a silvery gray number with a corseted midriff and panels of lace over her long legs. One by one, 14 other models carefully maneuvered into position. Some better choreography was needed if Ms. Versace hoped to give the illusion of goddesses on steps. A pair of platform shoes with stiletto heels is certain to take the spring out of your step. The dresses (and some brief shorts and jackets) were body-skimming, in platinum tones as well as red, chartreuse and snake green, with molded corsets, their Wonder Woman contours accentuated with a relief of curves and metal insets.

The presentation had a tension that might have been eliminated had Ms. Versace just staged a normal show.