Gaultier opts for a mish-mash from the Mediterranean

It is 16 years since the cone-shaped bra worn by Madonna on her Blond Ambition tour catapulted its designer Jean Paul Gaultier to stardom.

The singer arrived in a black, fur-trimmed coat and sunglasses to sit front row at his haute couture show yesterday, delaying its start by being an hour late. The other front-row couture clients, women who spend tens of thousands of pounds on a hand-embroidered outfit, might not appreciate the near-hysteria that greets a mega-star.

But at a spring/summer couture week that has seen only a handful of singers and actresses in attendance, it was a welcome shot of glamour.

Gaultier, the one-time co-presenter of Eurotrash and the former enfant terrible of French fashion, still has the ability to shock. Health-conscious guests might have flinched at the sight of a handful of models who wafted lit cigarettes. But he is the natural successor to Yves Saint Laurent, who retired in 2002.

Yesterday's Grecian and Moroccan-themed show closed haute couture week, a privilege formerly held by Saint Laurent.

The aggressively styled corsets and bras that he created for Madonna are still a signature design for Gaultier, and for spring he offered clients a pale yellow pleated dress with conical bosoms encrusted with crystals.

But this collection dispensed with sex appeal in favour of a mish-mash of Mediterranean influences, from giant organza harem pants and a long amethyst-coloured chiffon dress ruched into Grecian pleats, to Ali Babar stilettoes, and a belly-dancer's outfit.