PARIS - IN TODAY'S despondent climate, it was a reminder of heady days, when top models were fashion's golden girls.

The audience at Jean Paul Gaultier's couture show on Wednesday for next summer burst into spontaneous applause when Ines de la Fressange, one of the iconic models of the 1980s, appeared on the catwalk in a sensuous body-hugging long black gown.

The Brangelina twins made their public debut on Tuesday as actors Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie arrived with their brood of six at Narita airport, near Tokyo.

PARIS - PARIS' haute couture designers turned up their noses at the recession, delivering opulent spring-summer collections that obstinately refused to pay the gloomy global economic situation any mind.

Rhinestone-covered shows on Wednesday by labels including Valentino, Elie Saab and Jean Paul Gaultier kept up the devil-may-care luxuriousness that has characterized the other collections of wildly expensive, made-to-measure garments shown this week in Paris