Kenzo makes a catwalk of Paris' streets

PARIS — Fashion stopped the traffic on Saturday, as models at Kenzo took the show off the runway and onto a central Paris plaza, where a spinning rainbow of vintage Citroen cars awaited them. Fashionistas in vertiginous heels followed the models out into the street and curious passers-by snapping cell phone pictures jostled for a spot on the sidewalk as faux police officers tried to keep a lid on it all.

The day's other menswear shows couldn't help but appear tame by comparison.

Still, Kris Van Assche served up a strong and innovative fall-winter 2010-2011 collection of high-water pants and blazers with trompe l'oeil flaps and unexpected vents at Dior Homme, while Hermes turned out more of the timeless, beautiful pieces that have forged its reputation for excellence for going on two centuries.

It wouldn't be a Kenzo show if it didn't end with a grand, theatrical bang. But a traffic jam straight out of Paris circa the mid-20th century? That's a show-stopper — even by the zany label's standards. And because it was Kenzo, the show culminated with the re-creation of a scene from Tati's 1971 movie "Traffic," featuring vintage cars jostling round Paris' Place des Victoires. Guests spilled out of the boutique, and passers-by snapped photos as the models walked in circles around the center of the plaza, a rainbow of long, futuristic Citroen DSs spinning around them, with faux gendarmes in period costume directing traffic.

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