Gaultier: Let's Dance

The ballet world is a durable fashion theme, and Jean Paul Gaultier took it for a spin this afternoon as the fall haute couture season closed. Actually, Mr. Gaultier seemed more interested in the characters who populated that world, some of them Russian émigrés.

There was a strong Russian undercurrent in the clothes — rustic masculine tweed jackets and coats with full petticoated skirts, a gorgeous pistachio Fair Isle sweater in knitted fur with a sweeping gray silk skirt, and lavish nylon parkas for the male models who appeared in the show (from among the Gaultier regulars). He reworked the classic trench coat — and before you say “Again?,” some of them were tempting, notably a long draped trench dress in beige jersey. He did a playful, full-skirted chiffon dress striped with fur and fringed in between with coq feathers, and one or two satin corseted looks that made overt reference to dance. But this collection, while heavy in spots, really alluded to the personal style of that worldly brigade.