PARIS, February 28, 2008 – Celine is one of those minor-league labels that, in the absence of any fixed identity of its own, is destined to play along with the trends in order to keep up its claim to being a part of things. In that sense, its show acted as a kind of general weather forecast for winter. Heading this way: one-color silhouettes in double-face cashmere, funnel necks and eighties-type Montana-Mugler top-seaming, fur-zoned coats, armor influences, metallic paillettes, overlapping curviform cutting, statement neckpieces, and sculptured wedges in the footwear department.

To give Celine designer Ivana Omazic her due, she accurately registered all these movements in the fashion ether, while giving them a kind of sports spin—a cashmere hoodie and fur-smothered parka here, a crocodile motorcycle jacket there, and a couple of luxury rucksacks inserted into the back view of raincoats. By the end, a gearchange for evening led the collection into goth-y monkey-fur jackets and long black fluted skirts—admittedly nothing to do with the way the show started out, but still a look that is taking off elsewhere. If there was nothing much "wrong" with all this—except for the long passage of overwrought layered skirted effects—it's still hard to see what, exactly, would make a customer want to shop this label above so many others who are doing more or less the same thing.

– Sarah Mower