THE world’s biggest fashion houses presented their fall/winter 2019 collections in Paris this week, and this eclectic haute-couture show served up several highlights, including Chanel, who paid tribute to Karl Lagerfeld, Dior’s ‘Back to Black’ collection, Elie Saab’s ‘Symbol of China’ and John Paul Gaultier’s ‘Fake Fur’ selection.

Armani Prive’s star pull

Nicole Kidman and husband Keith Urban joined the celebrity pack at the Armani Prive couture show, which included Italian cinema legend Claudia Cardinale, actress-singer Zendaya and actress Olivia Hamilton.

The rival to Chanel in terms of star-power, Giorgio Armani’s fall-winter display was held symbolically in the Petit Palais, the palace located opposite the Parisian stalwart’s morning show venue.

Style-wise, the program notes for the Italian veteran designer said he went this season to the “folk” styles of the late 80s.

If this was folk, it was an extremely monied version of it, expressed essentially through ethnic earrings, quirky silk head pieces and graphic detailing.

The signature tailored suits with tapered pants began the looks, and in doing so reminded guests that this was a designer who, of course, first cut his cloth in menswear.

Dior goes back to black

“I could write a book about black,” Christian Dior once declared.

Designer Maria Grazia Chiuri used this as a mantra to produce a dramatic display, one that was nearly all in black and featured veiled models in couture that celebrated the power of architecture and the sculptural female form.

Black mesh and sheer catsuits exposed legs, shoulders and arms in sensual transparencies that showed off the body, while dark capes did exactly the opposite and enveloped the body in black taffeta jacquard.

“Designing a collection almost entirely in black, punctuated by rare colors that reveal its power, implies a return to fundamentals, to the foundations of haute couture,” explained the house.

Flashes of white provided historic musing — such as one formless ancient Greek tunic in white silk that gained its structure from the curves of the model’s body, with “Are clothes modern?” emblazoned across. So too did caryatids, stone sculptures of women that structurally hold up Greek temples, that provided the inspiration for one of the collection’s key silhouettes.

Evoking architecture more literally was the final look: a naked model “wearing” a replica of Dior’s atelier building made in gold leaf.

This design, which prompted chuckles from guests, was a welcome relief from what was a sometimes heavy and overly repetitive 65-look-collection.

Iris Van Herpen’s universe

Season upon season, Dutch wunderkind Iris Van Herpen plunges her marveling guests into a parallel universe — one replete with creations evoking underwater mollusks, electric shocks, audio waves, and fabrics resembling interlocking parts of crystals.

On Monday, the latest chapter of her world was unveiled amid a giant halo of pearly white organic shell discs designed by American artist Anthony Howe. It set the tone for a fantastical, aquatic spectacle.

The fibers and translucence of jellyfish and deep water life were a key theme in the 19 looks.

It produced beautiful trapezoid silhouettes that blurred the lines between fashion and pure art.

One bustier dress, if it can be called that, was made of interlocking semicircles of sheer fabric with a black fibrous edge.

Its stiff collar, while organic-looking, also evoked the historic ruffs of Elizabethan England in a sublime play in contradiction.

Incredibly, Van Herpen also managed to capture the limp gravity of tentacles moving under water in a series of multicolored three-dimensional gowns with divergent, floating layers. A watery sheen, achieved by ancient silk moiré— weaving, made some guests feel as if they were several leagues under the sea.

Bookish Chanel

Lagerfeld’s personal library of around 300,000 books, with its several librarians, featured prominently during a poignant memorial for him last month.

So, it was a touching gesture by Viard — his longtime head of studio — to keep his memory alive at the Chanel fall-winter couture show by creating a two-level library in the Grand Palais, bursting with tomes of classic French writers such as Baudelaire and Verlaine on wooden shelves to display the designs.

Viard did not need a crutch to sell her couture, however. In her first major calendar fashion show, she demonstrated a distinct artistic flair and vision that will take Chanel confidently into the future.

Models wore spectacles and preppy buttons, but the gimmicks gave way to a fluid and glimmering 70-look collection of gowns and signature skirt-suits.

“Chanel does not write with paper and ink ... but with material, with forms and with colors,” said philosopher Roland Barthes.

Elongated silhouettes and emphasized necks provided the form. Tweed, velvet, wool crepe mixed with lace and chiffon to provide the material. While, embroidered sequins and bursts of bright color on an otherwise powdery palette provided the hues.

Stand-out garments, such as a glistening multicolored circular bustier with delicate embroidered flowers, showed off both the talent of Chanel’s famed seamstresses and the promise of its newest design star.

Valentino wows celebrities

Luscious green trees that were installed inside the Valentino venue scraped the ceiling, wafted in fresh air and provided some shade for celebrities Gwyneth Paltrow, Celine Dion, Naomi Campbell and Kristin Scott Thomas as the Paris sun scorched guests.

This season, Pierpaolo Piccioli celebrated the organic: in its literal sense, through floral and bird-shaped embroideries, and figuratively, with ethnic fringes, crystals, gold baubles and sections that seemed to grow out of dresses and headpieces.

Collar bands that were constructed with beautiful black feathers mixed with long, Renaissance-looking “intarsia” capes.

There was even a loose, pink sequined gown that looked ready for the disco.

It was a diverse show that brimmed with ideas, but one that was sometimes hard to pin down as a whole.

Piccioli included a disclaimer in the program notes: “Trying to explain it all ... would be betraying the deepest meaning of the journey.”

The standing ovation followed, and as the soundtrack blasted, a smiling Dion mouthed the words, “You make me feel like a beautiful woman.”

Amid the rousing applause, all the couture artisans that worked on the collection came out to cheers and hugged the house founder Valentino Garavani, who sat with Paltrow on the front row.

Gaultier’s fake and authentic

Fake fur and authentic celebrities got all the attention at Gaultier.

In a corseted gown, singer Christina Aguilera held court with “RuPaul’s Drag Race” stars Violet Chachki and Miss Fame, as well as French cinema icon Catherine Deneuve at the fur-free show.

Last November, animal rights groups hailed Gaultier’s announcement that he banned animal fur from his collection.

The designer used this as a muse for a playful fall-winter collection that used feathers to mimic real fur on 1980s-themed looks with a funky retro soundtrack and flashes of bright color. An oversize Russian winter fur hat, or chapka, looked initially like the genuine article and shimmered alongside a red “fox” bubble jacket. They were all constructed in marabou feathers. Leopard print graced a billowing chiffon gown, geometric zebra stripes jazzed up diaphanous pant look, and all this was followed by a “panther” coat with oversize collar that was made with jacquard.

Gaultier’s program notes have become legendary over the years. Each season, guests pour over the house cards that humorously detail the couture looks with tongue-in-cheek word plays and rhyming puns. “Downtown Abyss,” “Black Panther,” “Grey of Thrones” and “Mein Hair” were among the quirky couture look titles — all the work of wordsmith Raphael Ciotti.

Elie Saab’s symbol of China

Amid mysterious clouds of Persian blue mist, Elie Saab fashioned up a standout couture collection on Wednesday using the symbolism of China. The Lebanese designer reimagined traditional Chinese drawings through embroideries with sequins, paillettes and sparkle that depicted fauna and flora; elements, the house said, that represent powerful protective spirits in Eastern legend.

“Nature, through mystical creatures and divine characters, sparked the curiosity of the designer, inspiring him to translate them into his very own art,” it added.

Long diaphanous tulle, velvet and chiffon trains brought a magical romance to Saab’s silhouette of sexy, cinched waist gowns. There was some sophisticated designs amid the show production, like the famed Chinese traditional dress, the Cheongsam, was reimagined in a light tuxedo-style with a provocatively open bust.

Givenchy is magnificent

Poetry was at the heart of a sublimely sensitive display by Givenchy’s talented designer Clare Waight Keller.

Inside the historic stone interiors of Paris’ Musee des Arts Decoratifs, floating feathers contrasted with dropped forms — produced by low-lying crinolines — to produce a collection of couture that literally played with gravity.

The unexpected was everywhere.

The fronts of gowns in white sometimes contrasted, in a truncated fashion, with a back piece that was a pair of pants.

Mysterious piano music held guests, in a mood of suspense during the show that seemed to tap into a dream state.

Models’ hair was swept up like the feathers of a crow, and indeed this style merged with genuine feathers — a move that seems to merge animal with human, and human with clothing. Simply put, Waight Keller is currently producing some of Paris’ best couture work.