Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York TimesLooks from the couture collections include, from left, Chanel, Christian Dior, and Giambattista Valli. DURING the Armani couture show the other day, I kept glancing across the runway at Jessica Chastain. Probably many people were, and all with the same thought: Does she see a dress here she might [...]

It seems hard to imagine that there is a great consumer desire for another documentary following the lives of impoverished fashion designers as they struggle to succeed. And yet I found myself oddly compelled by a new Web series that goes behind the scenes of the most recent CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund competition, namely because the [...]

Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York TimesValentino couture. Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York TimesBackstage at Valentino couture. In the program notes for Valentino’s spring couture show, the dresses had names like “Polignac” and “Nicolas Ledoux,” with a mention of the number of hours required to make or embroider the garment. A smocked dress in [...]

Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York TimesJean Paul Gaultier couture. Several years back, in Paris, Fendi invited Amy Winehouse to sing at a party, and lots of people went and many more waited outside. I wedged myself into a corner near the small stage and just watched her go to work with that voice. On [...]

Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York TimesGivenchy couture spring 2012. Cameron Diaz was having a private tour of the Givenchy spring couture collection, courtesy of Riccardo Tisci, when I popped in to see the clothes. It was nearly nightfall. Some photographers were huddled under an awning in the Place Vendôme, trying to stay out of [...]

There were no major fashion plates among the Oscar nominees announced this morning, but that might provide for a more exciting red carpet at the Academy Awards. Apart from Glenn Close, a best actress nominee, who wears a lot of Giorgio Armani, none of the nominated actresses tend to favor a single designer. None of [...]

Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York TimesChristian Dior spring 2012 haute couture. Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York TimesChristian Dior spring 2012 couture. At 2:30 p.m. Monday, I arrived at Dior, on Avenue Montaigne. Whenever couture is shown in the house, in the grand salons on the third floor, an enormous throng of spectators and [...]

Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York TimesChanel Couture spring 2012. Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York TimesChanel couture. Karl Lagerfeld spends enough time in the air to eventually think it might be a hoot to stage a Chanel show inside an airplane. He has had icebergs hauled to Paris. He has created farm scenes, a [...]

Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York TimesVersace spring 2012 couture. Versace was on the Quai Malaquais, so I went there at 10:30 a.m., killing a few minutes at the nearby Dries Van Noten shop to look at sale pieces and splash on some perfume. There was a crowd outside Versace, though nothing like the crowd [...]

Deidre Schoo for The New York TimesOutside the shows at New York Fashion Week. KCD, the public relations company that produces fashion shows for top labels like Marc Jacobs and Givenchy, announced on Monday that it is offering a new service wherein it will produce some shows in an entirely digital format so that overtaxed [...]