A galaxy of stars add to the brilliance of Paris Fashion Week

From Jessica Chastain at Saint Laurent to Woody Harrelson at Stella McCartney, see which stars Paris Fashion Week attracted.

Woody Harrelson, Kanye West, Paul McCartney, his wife Nancy Shevell and Stella’s husband Alasdhair Willis. Thibault Camus / AP

Jessica Chastain and Salma Hayek at Saint Laurent

Fashion royalty Salma Hayek, wife of Kering luxury group CEO François-Henri Pinault, sat pride of place at Saint Laurent and chatted enthusiastically with Jessica Chastain after the autumn/winter show.

“We talked about female empowerment … I’m much older than Jessica, but it reminds me of the 80s: a little punk, but chic. A different take on it: very strong, very sexy, very feminine … I loved every single piece,” Hayek said.

Chastain has signed up to a highly anticipated new project: to play Marilyn Monroe in a proposed 2016 film Blonde. “I’m not ready to talk about it … But I’m very excited to be working with [the director] Andrew Dominic,” she said.

Chastain was, however, ready to talk about her admiration for Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro, who’s directed her in the supernatural period film Crimson Peak, which comes out in October. “He’s a dream come true. I’ve worked with him twice,” she said.

Stella McCartney

Woody Harrelson joined Paul McCartney and Kanye West in the front row. But the strong celebrity presence wasn’t needed to attract attention to the 43-year-old’s designs. It was a stellar collection. Hitting the on-trend spot, Stella McCartney sensually explored styles of undressing for autumn/winter 2015, with a hint of the corset.

Gone were many of the sporty shapes associated with her aesthetic – in their place were silhouettes, cinched with a belt at the waist or bustier-shaped. Elsewhere, there were voluminous “comfort” shapes on beautiful loose knit sweater-dresses in earth tones, which would fall nonchalantly off one arm.

Then, in a fabulous series of Yeti-style “Fur Free Fur” looks, McCartney evoked the spirit of her late animal rights activist mother Linda. They were so well crafted that even the most knowledgeable fashion editor might not have been able to tell this fake fur from the real deal had they not known who had designed them. They were twinned with great 1970s kick flare trousers which, together with flashes of eclectic metallic panels, gave the collection a real disco lift.

Perry and Kardashian – Givenchy’s dark queens

“Black is always elegant. It is the most complete colour in the world,” said Givenchy’s designer Riccardo Tisci.

With that in mind, the Italian-born designer scored a coup – dressing two of the world’s most famous women in his own monochrome looks at the autumn/winter womenswear show on Sunday – the big ticket of the evening.

The newly blonde Kardashian wore a figure-hugging jumpsuit with black lacing, hugging and smiling Perry who stayed demure in a loose black lace shawl.

Kenzo says layering is in

This season’s mantra is: pile it all on. We’ve seen it notably at Lanvin, Dries Van Noten and now at Kenzo’s draped, voluminous and colourful fashion spectacle.

It takes a lot to drag fashionistas out early on a Sunday morning. But Kenzo rewarded those who came – feeding them tasty delights and treating them to an incredibly energetic presentation, in which gargantuan, rectangular mirrored walls moved behind models in the warehouse venue.

The collection continued this energy in its vivid splashes of kinetic graphic lines and flashes of contrasting, coloured prints.

But autumn/winter was all about the layering. Geometric lines featured on layered A-line column dresses, topped off with funky asymmetrical poncho-hoods.

One billowing printed look featured a play on jarring prints – the skirt looking eastern, the leopard-print top western.

Kenzo is all about the cultural fusion. The dark looks featured a nice play of camouflage print on a poncho and assorted jungle trousers: if you looked closely, you realised the pattern was, in fact, of very unmilitaristic flowers. It was tongue-in-cheek, and is bound to be a hit.

Céline undresses

Designer Phoebe Philo riffed on the theme of undoing, undressing and unbuttoning in a highly creative collection that ended up being more chic than provocative. The Céline woman is, after all, no show-off. Inner pocket straps were exposed on the torso, one in beautiful burnt orange, with its belt flapping down, undone.

A loose and stylish cream minimalist poncho sweater looked like the model was caught trying to take it off, with one arm in and the other out, and the neck-hole skewed to the side. A cream shawl with a russet band was wrapped haphazardly around the body, as if ready to fall off onto the floor.

Half-unbuttoned, loosely structured floral shirts were accessorised with multiple huge, abstracted fur cuffs – held together by the normally invisible string that goes inside the coat.

The later sections included a beautiful play on triple colours like one loose, silk ankle-length dress in deep blue, white and red. Only a designer like Philo can make a collection this “quirky” ooze style.

Chloé

Eighteen-year-old singer Lorde led the VIP pack at Chloé, inside the Grand Palais, where Paris’s spring sun beamed through the venue’s glass ceiling. It nicely set off the collection designed by Clare Waight Keller.

It was on-trend menswear and boho looks in vogue this season, with, for the most part, longline loose flowing silhouettes.

A militaristic, long pea coat with huge lapels and gold buttons set the show going, fusing into a sumptuous Sherlock Holmes-style cape coat in grey, a double-breasted peaked jacket in grey check wool, or a scooped boyish waistcoat.

The bohemian looks included a long diaphanous silk crêpe dress in purple, twinned with a long thin black neck scarf. It was a safe collection with very eclectic proportions.