Jean Paul Gaultier carries the crown of Paris’s most Parisian designer, with his glamour-fuelled creations often echoing the hallmarks of the city of light. With the Eiffel tower racing up stocking legs in his Haute Couture show for Fall Winter 2010-11, this latest outing proved this point with a patriotic fervour and a playful kitsch. Held within the Rue St Martin showroom of the Gaultier HQ, the event began over an hour late as guests waited for the most esteemed invitees to arrive, including actress Catherine Deneuve and model/human rights advocate Liya Kebede.

Appearing from behind thick velvet drapes, Gaultier’s models sashayed down the runway with a coy, affected air – some with a cigarette holder delicately perched between polished fingers. Each girl wore a variation on a dramatic tied turban, pleated and knotted in a stiff loop at the forehead – fanning out like deep-sea coral or a towel wrapped around freshly washed hair. Upon their feet were dangerously high heels with a double stiletto heel, as ankle boots panelled with crocodile and pumps in satin or burnished patent leather.

The couture notes read like a reel of exciting stories, from “The affair is in the sack” to “Enter the phantoms” and “Parisian Psycho”, and Gaultier dressed his woman ready and raring to embark on such adventures. Recalling the heady hey-days of Jazz era Paris, he sent out a cavalcade of bare legs with snappy buttoned and zipped skirt suits in soft leathers, polished cotton and suiting wool. Shoulders bowed out and jutted to a sharp corner on short bombers, and shawl neck coats fell in luscious leather pleats to the knee. Fox and mink shawls wrapped around the bust and pencil skirts hugged tight to the hips in rich velvet or fell in degradé maribou feathers.

Several dresses and coats lost the slick-scuba fit of the tailoring and explored the loose batwing shape of the manta ray, cocooning at the knee in soft tones of coppery pinks, blacks and one jumpsuit in encrusted gold. Sheer silk lay over metallics and lace, creating a floating tuxedo cape and a hooded dress in striped fur, and Gaultier’s signature cone-bra and lingerie detailing was ever present. Pops of acid colour were seen in a lime green halter dress with matching mink-trimmed wrap, a violet silk jumpsuit with a jewel-encrusted peak shoulder, and chartreuse, vermillion and turquoise accents on cut-away shoulders and the ubiquitous turbans.

If the passing parade of alluring garments was not enough, Gaultier added further spice to the mix with the entrance of Dita Von Teese half way through the 48 looks, entering in a floor length pleated gown and stripping down to an elaborate skeleton corset. For his second trick, he sent the final outfit “La Mariée” out on Yue Zhang, a violinist from the National Opera of Paris who played her way down the glossy catwalk.

Returning for his bow with the scantily clad Dita, Gaultier closed off a sultry and smooth presentation that evoked a bygone era of excess. His fabulously dramatic eveningwear harked back to a decadent age while keeping one foot firmly in the future – with exquisite craftsmanship in unexpected finishes and fabrics that channeled the Gaultier signatures into a rather classy affair.