How great is it to see Linda Evangelista on the cover of the latest issue of LOVE magazine and to read her first interview for eight years for that matter? In their time anyone now over the age of 20, let's say, and even remotely interested in fashion, has indulged in an obsession with this, over and above all the other supermodels, after all.

"You can dress up, or you can dress down, but you have to be chic," said my friend, Charlie, during last month's haute couture collections in Paris. And she's right. With the show season approaching, it's total spring/summer look at one end of the spectrum – think ice-cream colours and be-jewelled slippers. At the other, battered jeans and Converse high-tops, say, remain a time-honoured uniform. Either has to be carried off with a sense of style, however, or, my favourite word just now, what with its Seventies connotations: panache.

Marc Jacobs arrived at the French luggage label Louis Vuitton in 1997 – and turned it into one of the hottest names in fashion. Susannah Frankel looks back at 15 years of a fabulous collaboration.

"Lagerfeld's overrated," screams the cover of the latest issue of Newsweek.

If the spring/summer haute-couture collections featured more than their fair share of princess dresses and overblown ball gowns, the presentation of Phoebe Philo's autumn pre-collection for Céline, in the label's showroom, was the antithesis.

Most women will never own a piece of haute couture clothing, but these rarefied garments showcase designers' wildest imaginings, says Susannah Frankel

A live barbershop quartet crooned an elliptical rendion of 'Rehab', while the models wore black veils

Karl Lagerfeld transformed the interior of Paris's Grand Palais into a private jet for the spring/summer 2012 Chanel haute couture show yesterday. Perhaps he felt it would make the handful of clients wealthy enough to invest tens of thousands of pounds in a single, hand-worked garment feel at home. Certainly, Chanel besuited guests appeared delighted as they walked through the metal walkway and circular lounge to their airline seats. Drinks were served from silver trolleys, all beneath a blue sky projection scattered with clouds.

Is the ultimate luxury label out of step with the times? Not at Paris fashion week. Susannah Frankel on a rousing return

By the time you read this, the handful of women inclined to order haute couture clothing will be off to their first show – cosmetic enhancement perfected, liveried drivers at the ready and with a limousine-required wardrobe to match.