All Aboard the LV Express - New York Times

But there the relationship between the show dreamed up by the designer Marc Jacobs for the final day of Paris Fashion Week and the reality of four on-the-road weeks for the fashion crowd came to a grinding halt.

These travelers were gorgeous in their journey attire and its extraordinary adornment of brocades and jacquards, embroidered with baubles or appliquéd with glimmering, reflective hologram-like forms.

Wouldn’t all that stuff get caught up in a suitcase’s wheels? No problem! Uniformed porters carried the bags, which ranged from classic LV Monogram canvas trimmed with crocodile to furry totes. For hand luggage, the designer was thinking big and, for once, he brought the best-selling accessories into a parallel universe with the clothes.

Even if Mr. Jacobs was not directly inspired by the exhibition that opens Friday at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris — “Louis Vuitton Marc Jacobs,” dedicated to the house’s founder and the current designer — he took a visual trip in this winter 2012 collection.

“There is always an inspiration of travel at Vuitton,” said Yves Carcelle, the outgoing chief executive who has done so much over two decades to shape Vuitton from handbag and travel trunks to high fashion.

Backstage, Mr. Jacobs, wearing a Comme des Gar?ons black jersey dress rather than his usual kilt, extolled the merits of Vuitton’s new layered look over pants. With Prada, Chanel and Marc Jacobs’s U.S. brand walking the same track (and with Prada’s embellished coats singing the same tune as Vuitton’s), this layered look has to be taken as a major trend.

Although Mr. Jacobs admitted that the only train he ever stepped into was Eurostar, he caught the travel bug in two ways: the outerwear was exceptional in its A-line cut, which gave shapely space to the body; and he included inspiration from far-flung places, including metallic weaves replicating Afghan blankets.

The idea of intense and modern decoration, taking out the preciousness by using sparkling tinsel and glass “jewels,” like for children, is another trend from Mr. Jacobs, who greeted guests like the actresses Fan Bing Bing, of China, and Sarah Jessica Parker on the Vuitton train. It might have been Old World travel but for the international set, those clothes will fly.

Petal power

Nature sweet in leaf and bud was the story at the Alexander McQueen collection, where the savage rawness of the late designer was expressed with a gentler, organic spirit by Sarah Burton.

“I wanted it to be futuristic — but in a beautiful way, looking forward positively,” said the designer, whose expression of flowers budding and breaking made a mesmerizing and beautiful collection.

The explosion of petals, turning women into flowers, and the final array of floral abundance and vivid red and pink color was matched by exquisite handcraft. This house might even consider showing a collection of such craftsmanship in the haute couture season for there was no pretence here of a modern wardrobe — even one for such a rarefied fan as the Duchess of Cambridge, England’s some-day Queen. But with the McQ affordable line on stage in London, this brand is aiming for the fashion pinnacle.

What Ms. Burton called “exploding proportions” started as densely crafted pieces, but with the shape of a skirt more like a bud than a flower. Then floral patterns were laser cut, like paper doilies, into leather, while cherry blossom jacquards were enveloped by fluffy dandelion heads created from mink or feathers.

Silver belts in sculpted floral shapes reined in the abundance, while an air of mystery was provided by the models’ metallic blinders (fitting with the shoes, which were furry and heel-less, like horses’ hoofs).

The idea of beauty growing organically and bursting into flower was a fine symbol for the designer, who, after the traumatic departure of her boss and mentor, is now in full creative bloom.

Last minute

On the last day, and at almost the final moment of the international collections, Muiccia Prada made her 11th-hour fashion innovation: “Let there be pantsuits again!”

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