Following Spook's show, a committee of 24 international fashion writers awarded this season's Golden Thimble prize for all-around excellence to Dior's couturier, Marc Bohan.
They first met and became friends after Saint Laurent's sensational 1958 "trapeze" line collection for Christian Dior, as Saint Laurent, age 21, took over designing for the Dior empire following the couturier's death in 1957.
In May, Gianfranco Ferre took over the chief creative post at Dior from Marc Bohan, Dior's couturier for 30 years.
Early on in the walk, he stripped off the costume by French couturier Thierry Mugler and was left in a multi-colored body stocking that made him look like a small exotic bird against the blue sky.
The biggest news was at Dior, as the Italian couturier Gianfranco Ferre nearly brought down the tent in an outdoor show at the gardens of the Salomon-Rothschild Foundation.
The Soviet Union's premier couturier, he has finally broken out of the confines of his Moscow House of Fashion and made it to the West.
However, Moslem women are more likely to hire dressmakers or make their own clothes, according to Nur Ali, a Brooklyn couturier with a Moslem clientele.
Japanese couturier Hanae Mori _ considered a Paris designer for more than 15 years now _ showed the sexiest, youngest fashions she's ever designed.