PARIS--Confession: I didn't see Pedro Lourenço's show in person. Chalk it up to being a Paris Fashion Week rookie--I took the metro to the wrong venue and then got slammed in horrible traffic when I tried to take a taxi to the correct location (thinking a cab would be faster--I was wrong). As I pulled up to the Ecole Des Beaux Arts I saw Susie Lau leaving. "I missed it!?" I yelled stepping out of my cab. "Yeah, sorry," she said, looking actually a little sorry for me, because, she added, "It was really an amazing show." I was disappointed to have missed Pedro Lourenço's fall collection as I wanted to see the boy wonder who wowed the critics last season in Paris in action (though I guess he's not a teenager anymore, having just turned 20). Last season his collection was all leather--intricate work that was impressive to see but perhaps not as practical to buy and to wear. Lauren predicted this season Lourenço would veer more commercial--and he did. He dropped the leather obsession and went softer, using wool and fur on primary colored long sleeved dresses, skinny pants and knit tops, all done in mod-ish patterns. Looking at the photos, I'm even more peeved I missed the show. Tant pis.

"I love to get obsessed with things and afterwards change extremely while keeping my identity," said Pedro Lourenco of fall 2013's move away from pink, the dominate color in his spring collection. For fall, Lourenco's inspirations were certainly more ambitious.

New show reviews and galleries are in from Paris! Check out Damir Doma, Mugler, and Nina Ricci.

In an era when the headline "Is Couture Dead?" runs in newspapers and on websites nearly every fashion week, Giambattista Valli is saying phooey to those notions. Indeed, the designer will show his first haute couture collection this July at the medium's bi-annual event in Paris. The show, taking place in the Galerie de la Madeleine--home to Valli's new store and studio--is part of the official Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week calendar. No easy feat for a newbie. (It's unclear whether that means Valli has already been accepted into the Chambre syndicale de la haute couture, but we're assuming it does if he is to be listed on the official calendar.)