Fashionista contributor Long Nguyen is the co-founder/style director of Flaunt.

PARIS–There’s always a great danger when fashion designers base a collection around a specific theme and then made the clothes pertinent to their particularly chosen subject. The invitation to Jean-Paul Gaultier’s Monsieur show–a white square with bull eyes and black figures in tuxedos carrying handguns with a fuschia “James Blonde” taped over the center target–solicits the possibility that Mr. Gaultier may overwhelmed in complying to the exigencies of the elegant style of James Bond as featured in countless movies over the past few decades. The James Bond films are essentially fashion movies as much as international espionage thrillers. The protagonist, 007, has a certain absolute style whether snorkeling, gambling, or rescuing a damsel in an enemy camp.

But when four dancers dressed as thieves pranced down the runway to the familiar Bond music and the first model emerged wearing a black fitted tuxedo carrying a gun in his right hand, followed by another in a sleeveless vest-skirt-pant wool suit, it was pretty clear that Mr. Gaultier has taken the task of fashioning a new wardrobe for a new James Bond, in this case Blonde, with utter seriousness.

PARIS–Finally, some fun! God bless Agnès Troublé (Agnès b).

Firstly, she fed us (sandwiches). Secondly, this was the most remarkable and courageous show I’ve seen so far. No bells. No whistles. No bullshit. Just great, colorful clothes following the smart and streamlined design aesthetic Agnès b. has established and kept to since the 1970s.

The first thing to notice as the show started was the classical guitar: no whining tones to indicate the coming thumping house beat, just simple strings. Next came the hats. Agnès had her models dressed as bohemian soldier boys, wearing Tricorne hats, bowlers, caps, ushankas and fedoras. But they weren’t gimmicky. They accessorized a lavish tweed redingote, which fell to knees ensconced in velvet pants. Her black jersey jackets, with gold buttons and colored lapels, on top of the striped tees that made her famous, let us imagine the most carefree of deserters, brigands and thieves (the sashes may have been a little over the top, but I didn’t mind).

But Agnès didn’t get carried away with the past.

PARIS–Bigness isn’t a word I use all that often, but it’s one of the overarching themes for Fall 2011: exploding shearling, walls of fur, linings upon linings, cable knits on sweaters like ropes on freighters. Korean designer Juun.J has embraced this facet of the season with gusto, adding multiple jackets to a single look, letting their sleeves hang on to other sleeves. But giving in to “more” with a certain eloquence.

The effect could be hexapodol, but the insectile looks carried way more weight than any bug. This was a fascinating collection, and made me wonder why Junn.J doesn’t have more pickup in the US. There was fantastic tension in every look; the shearling interior and mohair exterior in one of his coat looked like they were attacking each other, straining for possession on the wearer’s body. Same with the leather motorcycle jacket, lined with yet more shearling. And again with a down jacket encased in synthetic, but balanced out with wool.

There were also some individual pieces that I can’t get out of my head: the first pinstripe jumpsuit I’ve ever seen, an oxford shirt with cashmere sleeves, and a science fiction-y grew wool sweater boasting the aforementioned extra pounds of wool.

All in all, big props.

PARIS–On my way out of the show preceding Issey Miyake’s Fall 2011 Men’s collection, I stopped some serious fashion editors and asked if I’d see them there? I would not. “He doesn’t do it anymore,” one told me. “He” being Miyake himself, the techno wizard who merged science and fashion to cement his brand as Japan’s finest sartorial export in the 90s. “It’s nothing we haven’t seen,” said another.

I had trouble getting on board with the collection by Dai Fujiwara (who took over as creative director in 2006), but I think these editors missed out, and while the innovation might no longer be at the level it once was (this collection embraced nostalgia, if anything), the brand is still connecting East and West in interesting, if not entirely convincing, ways.

The theme of the collection was “pen” and the défilé centered on young men, arriving in Paris and endeavoring to write, following their stories through the writing instrument as vehicle.