Paris was in full bloom, as Christian Dior designer John Galliano released the city’s fall-winter 2011 haute couture collections with a hothouse of petal-covered gowns and tulip shaped skirts in a riot of colors.

A marvel of technical know-how and unbounded inspiration, Galliano’s garden was a sort of haute couture policy that put on very ostentatious exhibit the raison d’etre behind the collections of wildly luxurious, made-to-measure garments that only a handful of women in the world can afford.

Bouchra Jarrar delivered clean-lined appears in blue, black and ecru for her second couture collection under her signature label.

Where Dior was an explosion, Jarrar was all self-restraint and rigour – but her elegance and precision were no less dressmaking than Dior’s creative catharsis.

Another emerging French designer, Christophe Josse, looked to the long, lean silhouettes of the early 19th century for motivation, delivering a nuanced collection in dusty-hued silks, velvets, astrakhan and feathers. Like at Jarrar, there was nary a sequin in sight.

Lebanon’s Georges Chakra made up for that, pouring kilograms of sparkles onto red-carpet-ready gowns in ruddiness metallic fabrics.