ALL SET UP

PRADA

Miuccia Prada took the female protagonists out of her collection and unleashed them in her huge headquarters. The supersized illustrations were the collective works of eight female artists (see Best of Both Worlds), welcoming spectators with the visual impact of comic art-covered ceiling and walls.

CHANEL

Karl Lagerfeld plays Mother Nature, transplanting vertiginous 15m-high cliffs and six cascading waterfalls à la the Gorges du Verdon into the Grand Palais. The monumental set took nine days to construct. Models walked on raised wooden platforms above water enough to fill a 25m-deep pool. After the show, this water was channelled back into the sewage system for recycling.

GUCCI

Models walked through three grand arches amid classical statues on a striking blue runway representing the Tiber, Italy’s third longest river. Based on an ancient map leading to Roman poet Horace’s home, Alessandro Michele reimagined the set — which took three weeks to put together — as a modern map, complete with street lamps and Metro-inspired graphics.

DIOR

Muse of the season Niki de Saint Phalle extends her influence to Maria Grazia Chiuri’s set in the gardens of the Musée Rodin. Recreating the late French-american aristocratic artist’s mirror mosaics from her Tarot Garden took 80,000 shards of glass, 7,200 kg of coated concrete, 80 people and 20 days of labour-intensive installation, to turn the green lawn into the show space.