PARIS, February 28, 2000 – "I dedicated the collection to Françoise Hardy," explained Eric Bergère after his quintessentially Parisian collection. "She was the Twiggy of France--a writer, singer and Left Bank intellectual and an inspiration for people like Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger." Bergère took elements of Hardy's trademark kooky '60s-style--an androgynous attitude, mini skirts worn with hip-slung belts, black leather headscarves--and morphed them with pieces drawn from the uniforms of chic European children, including pinafores, short capes, school blazer badges and the sort of stiff little A-line coats favored by the British Royal family.

The soundtrack mixed folky '60s French singers with music from Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, and mirrored Bergère's feeling for "a little bit of '60s and '70s, but modernized" for his clothes, which run the gamut from elegant, to, well, kooky. Bergère cuts his stylish skinny pants just above the ankle and gives his blouses the bishop's sleeve of the season, but throws some alarming hot pants and even an '80s rah-rah skirt into the brew. A sheer chiffon blouse with a bow-tie neckline (worn with a short velvet skirt), and the low back on an otherwise cover-up velvet cocktail dress, however, hint at the stylish Saint Laurent ideal that Bergère happily continues to hold dear.

– By Hamish Bowles