Whether Galliano would or wouldn't be there was the question on everyone's lips at the recent Paris Fashion Week. In the end, he wasn't, so attention turned to what really mattered - the fall-winter collections. Dior - a show, but no Galliano

In the fashion world, as in showbiz, the show must go on, and so it did at disgraced former Dior designer John Galliano's signature label - though in an admittedly scaled-back and truncated form.

Dior fired Galliano at the beginning of the month amid allegations he made anti-Semitic comments, throwing the fate of the designer's eponymous brand, which is owned by Dior parent company LVMH Moet Hennessy, into doubt.

For several days after the surprise sacking, it wasn't even clear the label's fall-winter 2011-12 ready-to-wear collection would be shown to the press and buyers at all. But company executives settled on holding a low-key presentation instead of the big-budget blockbuster runway shows that have become a trademark of the house.

Galliano, who's rumored to be in rehab in Arizona, didn't attend last Sunday's presentation.

The event, held in a Paris 16th district town house, showcased only 19 looks - fewer than half of what would typically be shown on the catwalk. Models in full Galliano regalia traced lazy circles around Baroque, flower-covered centerpieces, pausing in front of the photographers' pits to strike exaggerated poses.

The clothes, bias cut gowns in sheer chiffon and oversized outerwear, was old-school Galliano. Voluminous tweed jackets were paired with pencil skirts - some of them in pastel-tinged latex - and flirty little pleated sundresses poked out from beneath fur-trimmed parkas. Marabou feathers undulated lazily from the hemline and sleeves of a long, lean gown in black silk that glinted with sequins.

At the previous Friday's Dior show, where the full 60-odd-look, Galliano-overseen collection was shown without the designer, the makeup was toned down. But the girls at Galliano were in full splendor, their lips painted into little bow shapes, their eyes heavy with liner and shadow and their cheeks shimmering with pinky blush.

Maybe it was the eye-popping makeup and garb, or the golden afternoon sun that streamed in through the windows, but the general mood at Sunday's presentation was lighter, less somber than at the almost funereal Dior show.

Dior CEO Sidney Toledano, who at the Friday show denounced Galliano's comments, was also on-hand for Sunday's presentation, glad-handing industry insiders. Though what his presence there meant for the company's uncertain future was far from clear. "It's the million-dollar question: What was Toledano doing there?" said Style.com editor-at-large Tim Blanks.

Asked whether he thought the fashion world had come to terms with Galliano's titanic fall from grace, Blanks responded, "This wound is one that's going to take a long time to heal."

The uncertainty of the situation could be partly to blame.

Beyond the question of what will happen to the John Galliano label, the designer's successor at Dior has yet to be named, sparking near-constant speculation. The name of just about every high-profile designer has been bantered around, but the popular opinion has settled on Riccardo Tisci, the Italian at the helm of Givenchy.

Galliano's own future, too, is in doubt. A Paris court has ordered the 50-year-old designer stand trial on charges of "public insults based on the origin, religious affiliation, race or ethnicity" against three people.

The trial could take place between April and June and Galliano could face up to six months in prison and 22,500 euros (US$31,000) in fines, if convicted, prosecutors said.

Alexander McQueen - fueling royal rumors

With the Middleton mystery hanging in the air, a collective shiver swept the crowd when the first model stepped onto the runway dressed in head-to-toe white. A volley of meaningful glances shot around the room as the looks that followed - fur-trimmed pencil skirts and nipped-waist jackets with zippers in lieu of seams - were also in gleaming white.

The clincher, for many of the fashion insiders in the room, were the two tulle-covered gowns that closed the show, which looked - drum roll, please - an awful lot like wedding dresses.

No matter that the collection also included a fair share of black, not to mention plentiful hardcore bondage touches, such as the sculptural leather horse harnesses that encircled some of the looks and stood a fair chance of raising an eyebrow or two in palace protocol.



Chanel - post-punk style erupts

At the presentation of Chanel's fall-winter 2011-12 ready-to-wear collection, the audience was treated to a parade of post-punk pantsuits and wide-cut jackets in charcoal tweed by designer Karl Lagerfeld that at first glance looked like a harder sell than the pretty pastel skirts and snug tweed jackets that women worldwide lust over.

But even if the clothes themselves didn't take the crowd's breath away, the set did. Paris' mammoth glass-and-steel domed Grand Palais was transformed into a boulder-strewn volcanic island, complete with faux steam that wafted out from beneath the wooden catwalk and wide expanses of powdery synthetic volcanic ash strewn with fake boulders.

The start of the show resembled a big-budget science fiction flick. Like motherships touching down, two luminous oversized screens emblazoned with the house's enjoined double C logo descended to ground level and lowered like ramps to reveal the backlit silhouettes of a pack of models.

They walked the boardwalk in ample pleat-fronted tweed trousers and dramatic capes or wide, cropped jackets that looked like the chunky cousins of the house's hallmark slim-fitting jackets. They wore flat, pointy shoes with chunky socks that bunched at the ankle. Freja Beha Erichsen, the house's model of the moment, was transformed into a walking Chanel handbag, sheathed in a long-sleeved jumpsuit in the same shiny black quilted fabric the label's blockbuster purses are made from.