PHOTO: Louis Vuitton: Strong, Sensual Woman

`This time, the technique was more important than the colour` the Israeli-American designer said after the show.

French fashion super brands Louis Vuitton and Lanvin brought the catwalk season to a close on Sunday with mature collections aimed at luring women into their stores next fall despite the chill winds of economic downturn.

At Vuitton, British Grammy winner Amy Winehouse did not perform -- as rumoured by entertainment blogs before the show -- but there were plenty of other stars willing to take a front row seat for the fashion house's celebrity designer Marc Jacobs.

Maggie Gyllenhaal, Sofia Coppola, Dita von Teese and Shilpa Shetty were among those to see New Yorker Jacobs put on what he described as a show born of an American's passion for Paris.

"I adore Sarkozy, I adore Carla Bruni, the Eiffel Tower is almost in my garden. To me this was a vision of what a French fashion show used to be like," Jacobs told reporters backstage surrounded by television cameras.

While the show's style, in a white tent in the grounds of the Louvre, recalled fashion presentations in Parisian ateliers in the 1950s, Jacobs said the "strong graphic shapes" of the clothes weren't meant to reference any particular decade.

Still, the collection paraded several of the major trends for fall 2008 to have emerged during the six-week fashion show cycle -- volume skirts, narrow floating trousers and long dresses matched with clunky-heeled shoes. One fashion buyer summed it up as a season in homage to "a strong, sensual woman".

That female ideal was also on show at Lanvin, where Alber Elbaz garnered a standing ovation for a black and midnight blue collection of intricately-wrought dresses and pant suits.

"This time, the technique was more important than the colour," the Israeli-American designer said after the show.

MUST-HAVES

The close of the Paris shows ends a parade that started with men's wear presentations in Milan in January.

The cycle, through New York, London, Milan and Paris, establishes the trends for next season and provides vital inspiration for the world's biggest retail apparel chains from fast fashion stores Zara and H&M to Britain's Marks and Spencer.

Buyers and fashion editors on the front on Sunday were already distilling the "must-have" items for shoppers, a process that is taking on a greater importance this season than in many.

With falling financial markets and weakening housing prices crimping consumer spending in U.S. and European countries, getting women there to buy clothes next fall is expected to be trickier than in many years.

Neiman Marcus' Ken Downing, senior vice president and fashion director for the influential upscale U.S. department store chain and a front row fixture, said the consumer was already "definitely spending less than she was".

"We're seeing a lot of dark, sombre colours but what the consumer wants in these times is something really special, so colour is really important in that," Downing said, tipping collections from Marni, Prada, Burberry and Balenciaga as among the most sellable.

Glenda Bailey, editor of the U.S edition of Harper's Bazaar, advised that even for the cash-strapped the shows suggested "a beautiful soft ruffle shirt" would be the quickest way for women to update their look next season, or a "cardigan belted in".

Take a look at the PHOTOGALLERY.