Boys boys boys on the shows ... literaly

Jean Paul Gaultier always puts on a show, and this time he decided to dig back to childhood.

Whether it was a family affair, dressed up for Sunday school with Afro/clownish hair, or a methaphore of growing up, the whole catwalk was a criss-cross reference to older days and sober values.

Paper-thin trench coats, Chelsea boots, twig-thin ties, lacquered shoes and pinstripe suits; all in blacks, greys and whites with a splash of block red - declined from child to adolescent to man (with the odd young mother-figure in a retro boyish trench).

A refreshing uptake on old times with pehaps a little too many classic cuts that Gaultier could have twisted around a little more unconventionally.

All in all a suprising show with a few good pieces, although I doubt all this nostalgia will start a new modern trend. Much of it has been seen before.

Designers branch out for Christmas

It is the last week till Christmas, everyone should be rushing around Central to gather the last few gifts to put under the tree.

Except for designers who have been busy concocting Christmas trees for charity.

Zaha Hadid, Louis Vuitton, Miguel Adrover, and Jean Paul Gaultier, put their hands to the trees that went up for auction last week, after Paris's architecture museum was transformed in a holiday tree-shop.

Don't expect your regular pine tree though, the structures were more inspirational than traditional. Dazzling non the less.

Trees seem to be a popular structure to design this year, with Gareth Pugh creating a "modern seasonal celebratory symbol" for the new Westfield TopShop in London last month.

Lacking the minimum £40 000 Zaga Hadid's tree went for, I will be keeping to my mini-black, charity-shop tree this year. At least it isn't green: tradition with a twist is the new Christmas.