English dandies in leather-heavy looks at Hermes

The Paris luxury house, which started off more than 160 years ago as a saddle maker, sent out leather-heavy looks that draw on their long history of technical savoir-faire with the material: trenchcoats in supple leather, croc-skin trousers and microfiber parkas with crocodile epaulettes.

Little leather skirts were worn with menswear blazers and peacoats with extra-wide crocodile belts. Bowler hats topped off all the looks, and the other accessories - monocle necklaces and extra-long umbrellas - looked as if they'd been swiped from wardrobe of an old-school London dandy. Some of the models also sported rolled-up copies of The Times of London in their Kelly bags - the iconic handbags that are a major cash cow for the label.

French designer Jean Paul Gaultier, the one-time enfant terrible who showed his signature line earlier this week, said the collection was "very English, inspired by The City, bankers clothes revamped for the women who work there" and by that timeless symbol of British elegance, James Bond.

"It's a kind of Mrs. Bond, a Bond-ette," Gaultier told reporters after the show, which opened with English model Lily Cole in a leather catsuit standing inside a black-and-white striped tunnel, a la "A Clockwork Orange."