A trio of modern dancers opened the Jean Paul Gaultier show. Reprising her Riverdance moment from Fall 2007, Coco Rocha joined them for a few Martha Graham flourishes before stalking by in a fuchsia dressing gown that, once she unwound the straps, revealed itself to be a leotard. Rehearsal was the designer's ostensible theme. The models pinned their hair up under head wraps and wore all manner of warm-up clothes: There were A Chorus Line shirts wrapped around the midriff and tied in the back over high-waisted jersey pants with suspenders, a soft-looking white tracksuit, and, in a not-to-be-tried-offstage combination, flaring lace pants under leather briefs.
After a short interlude of suits, things took a more showgirl turn with Gaultier reprising one of his go-to motifs: innerwear as outerwear. A chain-mail halter topped a tattoo-print tank and panties set, and a green roomful of silk slips traipsed out, accessorized with a great-looking leather trench, a Mongolian lamb boa, or a fur stole. That stole's four legs and the dance troupe notwithstanding, this was one of Gaultier's tamer collections. It felt more like an exercise in styling than a tryout of new ideas.
