The most exciting thing about Nicolas Ghesquière at Balenciaga - and there are a few - is that he is the designer most concerned with chasing a modern silhouette. (Why else would Mary-Kate Olsen still wear his clompy shoe-boots when they're over a season old?) So you can bet your bottom Centime you'll never have dreamed of the shapes he comes up with. The autumn / winter 2008/9 was no exception. Like Alber Elbaz at Lanvin, he works from the archives of a great master (in his case Cristóbal Balenciaga, who died in 1972), and is fascinated with modern fabric technology. There were some extraordinary prints in his show, which had an aquatic theme, and looked as if they were photographs, such was their verisimilitude. Unlike Elbaz, who is all about womanly chic, his designs tend to cast women as hard-edged, too-cool-for-school customers, with ultra skinny tailoring. And who doesn't want to look cool and skinny?  -Danielle Radojcin