Paris catwalk 'is all about ideas'

The Paris fashion shows today ran the gamut from primitive to refined, with a cave girl theme at Vivienne Westwood and a celebration of 1940s elegance at Christian Dior.

But you won’t necessarily find the outfits in a clothing store near you.

Smart women have taken to running up advance shopping lists on the popular website Style.com, which features full photo coverage of every major collection, but find that many of the items showcased on the runway never make it to the shopfloor.

The reality is that by the time catwalk shows take place, buyers for department stores have filled up to 70% of their order books for next season with outfits seen in the showroom.

Hal Rubenstein, fashion director of In Style magazine, said the advent of the Internet had created confusion about the primary function of catwalk presentations.

“This was never designed to be the market place,” he said.

“The runway was always about ideas, it’s always about a conception of how somebody is thinking for the season.”