PARIS – Paris was in full bloom on Monday, as Christian Dior designer John Galliano opened 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 creativity, Galliano’s garden was a sort of haute couture manifesto that put on very ostentatious display the raison d’etre behind the collections of wildly expensive, made-to-measure garments that only a handful of women in the world can afford. As the number of houses that still produce couture continues to dwindle — with smaller labels that are unable to shoulder the cost not fielding collections this season — the Dior show was a riotous celebration of what couture, at its best, can be.

Bouchra Jarrar delivered clean-lined looks 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 rigor — but her elegance and precision were no less couture than Dior’s creative catharsis.

Another emerging French designer, Christophe Josse, looked to the long, lean silhouettes of the early 19th century for inspiration, 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 pounds (kilograms) of sparkles onto red-carpet-ready gowns in glimmering metallic fabrics.

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