Chanel Fall 2009 Couture.

Baptiste Giabiconi (MARILYN) and Lara Stone (IMG)

Before rating Chanel's Fall couture, let's consider what Karl Lagerfeld has already done for the house in the last six months.

Heidi Mount (IMG)

There was the indelible, incredible high of his all-white couture show in January.

Skye Stracke (VIVA)

Then, a matter of weeks ago, the staging of an unforgettably glamorous Resort collection on the beach at the Venice Lido.

Karmen Pedaru (NEXT)

All this supremely heart-lifting fashion, delivered in a year that is technically the most depressing in living memory.

Milana Keller (VIVA)

Back in Paris again, was it going to be humanly possible to top that for a third time? As it turned out, not quite.

Kamila Filipcikova (IMG)

The Chanel couture for Fall, shown in the Grand Palais on a stage set with giant white N° 5 bottles, had a comparatively toned-down atmosphere.

Siri Tollerød (MARILYN)

Lagerfeld's single conceit was a play on graphic proportion—suits and dresses with a longer flyaway panel in the back, all shown with lace tights and stiletto-heeled booties.

Abbey Lee (NEXT)

As the show progressed, he offered up some remarkable looks: a "smoking" redingote with a ruffle-necked blouse; a crinolined dance dress; pretty, light chiffon dresses in nude or midnight blue with ruffled trains.

Kasia Struss (WOMEN)

The outstanding look, though, was the one where the panel device was the least evident: a superchic spiral-cut dark blue dress with an asymmetric "tail" lined in red.

Sasha Pivovarova (IMG)

All the Chanel craftsmanship was there, of course, and impeccably achieved.

Iekeliene Stange (MARILYN)

For all that, Lagerfeld didn't manage to outstrip the genius of those previous two shows.

Charlotte di Calypso (ELITE)

That's the annoying thing when you're competing against yourself.

Sigrid Agren (ELITE)

Freja Beha Erichsen (IMG)

Magdalena Frackowiak (ELITE)

Denisa Dvorakova (ELITE)

Shu Pei Qin (NEXT)

Kori Richardson (IMG)

Kim Noorda (VIVA)

Yulia Lobova (MAJOR)

Tara Jean (MAJOR)

Snejana Onopka (WOMEN)

Angelika Kocheva (MARILYN)

Gwen Loos (MARILYN)

Edita Vilkeviciute (VIVA)

Elsa Sylvan (VIVA)

Imogen Morris Clarke (NEXT)

Vlada Roslyakova (WOMEN)

Tereza Cervenova (MARILYN)

Toni Garrn (WOMEN)

Yana Karpova (ELITE)

Dorothea Barth Jorgensen (ELITE)

Hanna Rundlof (MARILYN)

Inguna Butane (WOMEN)

Iekeliene Stange (MARILYN)

Charlotte di Calypso (ELITE)

Nastasia Ohl (VIVA)

Kelli Lumi (MAJOR)

Irina Kulikova (IMG)

Anna de Rijk (VIVA)

Shu Pei Qin (NEXT)

Skye Stracke (VIVA)

Alina Kozelkova (METROPOLITAN)

Siri Tollerød (MARILYN)

Daul Kim (MARILYN)

Heidi Mount (IMG)

Milana Keller (VIVA)

Snejana Onopka (WOMEN)

Daniela Alves (Slides)

Kamila Filipcikova (IMG)

Freja Beha Erichsen (IMG)

Kasia Struss (WOMEN)

Yulia Lobova (MAJOR)

Angelika Kocheva (MARILYN)

Abbey Lee (NEXT)

Gwen Loos (MARILYN)

Amanda Sanchez (ELITE)

Magdalena Frackowiak (ELITE)

Denisa Dvorakova (ELITE)

Jennifer Messelier (ELITE)

Karmen Pedaru (NEXT)

Sigrid Agren (ELITE)

Elsa Sylvan (VIVA)

Vlada Roslyakova (WOMEN)

Sasha Pivovarova (IMG)

Karl Lagerfeld