Country delights at Chanel

Lily Allen takes Chanel for a roll in the hay

'C'était amusant, non?' the lovely press lady asked us as we trooped out of the Chanel show this morning.

'Amusant' doesn't tell the half of it.

From the fabulously OTT set - complete with haystack, barn, hessian-covered seating, a straw-strewn set and a pen for the photographers - to the live Lily Allen performance and the naughty ménage à trois from Karl Lagerfeld's favourite models (not to mention some gorgeous clothes), this was the undisputed highlight of Paris Fashion Week.

Lagerfeld took his rapt audience not so much for a roll in the hay as a full-on romp (although despite the theatrics, the full and sheer exuberance of it all, Prince in the front row still couldn't bring himself to crack a smile).

Of course, Lily and Prince aside, there was the serious business of clothes-watching to attend to and, after the models had dusted the hay off their frocks (emerging from within a haystack does rather mess with one's couture), they were free to show off a youthful, bright and breezy collection that had best-seller written all over it.

Mind you, once Lily and her banjo band started up, their ramshackle barn of a stage rising from beneath an innocuous-looking pile of straw, it was rather hard to concentrate on anything but the performance in hand.

Having said that, there were plenty of pieces (those sweet side-slit short skirts for instance, the sexy and sheer long evening gowns, instantly covetable velvet peep-toes and sequin-covered bags) that managed to upstage even Lily.

SEE THE WHOLE COLLECTION HERE