There's no other store like... Balenciaga - Spring/Summer 2011

Much will be made over the coming days of the inclusion of a five months pregnant supermodel in the Balenciaga Spring/Summer 2011 show in Paris. It's not the first time a pregnant model has walked a runway. But this is Balenciaga. And given how much hoo-haa is normally made about model weight at the elite end of the fashion business, it does seem like some kind of watershed moment. The model in question, Miranda Kerr, is of course now not just a model, but a celebrity. And she has already walked in Balenciaga's shows on two previous occasions. Kerr's appearance at Balenciaga comes almost two months after she pulled out of the Spring/Summer 2010/2011 runway showcase of Australian department store David Jones, to which she is currently contracted, after marrying fiance Orlando Bloom. Since confirming her pregnancy, Kerr has spoken of her morning sickness in the first trimester, which presumably would have made the David Jones show difficult for her. That's assuming that David Jones would have been perfectly happy to put a pregnant model on its runway. In an odd coincidence, Balenciaga creative director Nicolas Ghesquière chose a large abstract houndstooth motif for this collection. The houndstooth motif being an integral part of DJs' brand identity (as is the advertising slogan, "There's no other store like David Jones").

One of the stronger collections of the season, it saw a tribe of warrior women in sequinned, armour-like cocoon coats, wrap skirts and embellished, one-shouldered toga dresses worn over illusion netting - the latter normally seen in ice skating costumes.

In a season of great trousers, Ghesquière also sent out some undoubtedly soon-to-be coveted cropped, loose drill pants, reminiscent of Japanese fishermens' trousers, whose waistbands were softly wrapped over grometted belts that had been laser-cut into geometric shapes. Over these were layered leather motocross jackets and loose mens shirts in devoré silks.

Joining Kerr were two other Australian models, Bambi Northwood-Blyth and Julia Nobis, in addition to several street cast girls and runway veterans Stella Tennant, Amber Valletta, Carolyn Murphy and new mother Gisele Bundchen, who closed the show.

See the complete collection on nowfashion.com.

all images: nowfashion.com

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