The queens of Paris

You know you're wearing a show-stopping dress when it requires its own personal assistant. So wide was model Karolina Kurkova's gown at the Christian Dior couture show that she had to be carried on to the catwalk sideways.

Like a giant red meringue, the dress's train and undulating skirts were so cumbersome that the six-foot American had to be hoisted aloft by two strong men. It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it.

It is three years since John Galliano received his CBE for services to fashion, but Her Majesty clearly left a lasting impression. Normally, Galliano is the biggest queen on the catwalk, but this time that honour went to his models. Their faces made up in white powder and their lips painted like a doll's, they were the living image of Elizabeth I. With teased Madame Pompadour hair, they held court over an entranced audience including Oprah Winfrey, Elizabeth Hurley, Val Kilmer and Juliette Binoche.

The Paris couture schedule is slimmer than ever this season, with Versace and Ungaro deciding not to stage shows. So it was to Galliano's credit that he managed to pull off such a spectacle. Sumptuous was not the word. With the finest craftswomen in Paris at his disposal, he used the most expensive fabrics. Flock velvet and elegant duchesse satin came trimmed with ermine, heavilyembroidered silk was folded into origami knife-edges of precision.

Each model wore a crown or coronet. These were not the only orbs on the catwalk: thanks to artfully boned bodices, the normally flat-chested models displayed cantilevered chests that would put Jordan to shame.

If Hurley, sitting front row, was on the lookout for a wedding gown she must have certainly found a show-stopper. Her fiancé, Arun Nayar, seemed delighted by the daring dresses on show, so we can only hope he is able to dig deep in his pockets to afford one. A Dior couture dress costs as much as a family car, but then nobody said va-va-voom ever came cheap.