Thierry Mugler

On the shoe box-sized stage of the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater, steps away from the site of last weekend's Museum of Contemporary Art gala where Miuccia Prada mixed it up with Frank Gehry and Lady Gaga to create a five-minute performance art piece, a smaller scale but bigger impact melding of fashion, high camp and high art opened Wednesday. It stars a 60-year-old drag queen in a Thierry Mugler corset, whose flirting with a marionette jazz band is the tamest of the evening's person-on-puppet encounters.

PARIS ? When it came to theatrics, the Paris leg of the recent menswear shows was as full as the generously cut trousers that filled the runways. And, though the designers in Milan and Paris don't always mine the same trends, for fall/winter 2011 the collections in both cities were in lock step, focusing on outerwear (especially blanket coats and toggle-button closures), and, almost to the one, including a pop or two of vivid blaze orange. Among the highlights of the Paris shows: Thom Browne The stage ?

In 1985, when Paris designer Thierry Mugler met Slava Zaitsev, favorite designer of Soviet First Lady Raisa Gorbachev and creator of Moscow police uniforms, it was the beginning of a great adventure. He photographed Zaitsev's collection in Moscow for Paris Match magazine and has since returned to the Soviet Union for other photo assignments. This season the flamboyant Parisian was invited back, to show his fall '90 ready-to-wear collection and organize the first "U.S.S.R. '90 Supermodel Contest."

The showing of the major men's fall-winter 2011-12 European collections, which this season run Jan. 15 to 18 in Milan and Jan. 19 to 23 in Paris, are the traditional opening salvo in a seemingly endless globe-spanning fashion marathon that doesn't wind down until the Halloween decorations go up. And, because of their pole position on the catwalk calendar, the men's shows often end up being more than the sum of their parts. They offer an opportunity to get an early bead on where menswear and women's wear designers ?

Alexander McQueen cotton halter, $300, with wool pants, $330, at Traffic, Beverly Center. Jimmy Choo sandals. Opposite: Christian Dior taffeta dress, $6,740, at Christian Dior, Beverly Hills. Fuse leather bracelet. Roberto Cavalli sandals. * Henry Duarte hemp knit sweater vest, $245, at Henry Duarte, West Hollywood, with Thierry Mugler leather shorts, $1,200, at Thierry Mugler Inc, New York City. Dolce & Gabbana shoes.

Patch Adams--the man behind the movie--isn't content to wring a few tears out of you this holiday season. He's hoping you'll put some money where your bawling mouth is and help him build the Gesundheit Hospital--Patch's dream of a free clinic in Virginia. Anyone who has passed a patch test can tell you that the real Dr. Adams, who inspired the Universal film starring Robin Williams, has clinically proven that laughter is indeed the best medicine.

The go-go girls of the psychedelic '60s dance into the fashion spotlight here as designer Thierry Mugler brings back beehive hairdos, Pucci prints and those ring-a-ding pants made famous by Sonny and Cher--bell-bottoms. In the wittiest collection of the fall season to date, Mugler spoofs the '60s with charm, certainty and a sense of humor sadly missing from the Milan and London collections.

Paris fashion designer Thierry Mugler is in town looking for "Hollywood madonnas"--not to model in his next fashion show but to pose in a photography book he's putting together. He's been touring the world for the past nine years, taking fashion pictures. The upcoming Hollywood sequence will be set in White Sands, N.M., where Mugler will go with his cast of "madonnas," his crew, cameras and clothing by several French designers.

It wasn't quite the same as being in Paris. But it was close. Instead of sitting in designer Thierry Mugler's pale-blue, 19th-Century atelier on the Faubourg Saint-Honore, Mugler brought some of the atelier to Los Angeles last week. He dispatched two of his top saleswomen, two of his runway models and 20 suitcases containing 150 garments from his early-fall collection.

The video: George Michael's "Too Funky," now in heavy rotation on MTV and other music video shows. The action: A fashion show where top-name models led by covergirl Linda Evangelista are victimized by Paris designer Thierry Mugler's fantasy costumes, set to the beat of Michael's nuevo disco. Michael's brief appearances show only his face with the same scraggly facial hair he's had for years. Stop watching those "Miami Vice" reruns, George: It's a new decade.

Paris-based fashion house Thierry Mugler has tapped Lady Gaga's stylist, Nicola Formichetti, as creative director for its women's and menswear labels. The label said Monday that Formichetti, who is also fashion director with Vogue Hommes Japan, is to begin with the fall-winter 2011-12 collections. Formichetti, a half-Japanese, half-Italian 33-year-old, replaces Spaniard Rosemary Rodriguez. Formichetti will oversee Mugler's head women's designer Sebastien Peigne, formerly of Balenciaga, and head menswear designer Romain Kremer, who also designs his own signature label.

On the shoe box-sized stage of the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater, steps away from the site of last weekend's Museum of Contemporary Art gala where Miuccia Prada mixed it up with Frank Gehry and Lady Gaga to create a five-minute performance art piece, a smaller scale but bigger impact melding of fashion, high camp and high art opened Wednesday. It stars a 60-year-old drag queen in a Thierry Mugler corset, whose flirting with a marionette jazz band is the tamest of the evening's person-on-puppet encounters.

Alexander McQueen cotton halter, $300, with wool pants, $330, at Traffic, Beverly Center. Jimmy Choo sandals. Opposite: Christian Dior taffeta dress, $6,740, at Christian Dior, Beverly Hills. Fuse leather bracelet. Roberto Cavalli sandals. * Henry Duarte hemp knit sweater vest, $245, at Henry Duarte, West Hollywood, with Thierry Mugler leather shorts, $1,200, at Thierry Mugler Inc, New York City. Dolce & Gabbana shoes.

Patch Adams--the man behind the movie--isn't content to wring a few tears out of you this holiday season. He's hoping you'll put some money where your bawling mouth is and help him build the Gesundheit Hospital--Patch's dream of a free clinic in Virginia. Anyone who has passed a patch test can tell you that the real Dr. Adams, who inspired the Universal film starring Robin Williams, has clinically proven that laughter is indeed the best medicine.

The video: George Michael's "Too Funky," now in heavy rotation on MTV and other music video shows. The action: A fashion show where top-name models led by covergirl Linda Evangelista are victimized by Paris designer Thierry Mugler's fantasy costumes, set to the beat of Michael's nuevo disco. Michael's brief appearances show only his face with the same scraggly facial hair he's had for years. Stop watching those "Miami Vice" reruns, George: It's a new decade.

In 1985, when Paris designer Thierry Mugler met Slava Zaitsev, favorite designer of Soviet First Lady Raisa Gorbachev and creator of Moscow police uniforms, it was the beginning of a great adventure. He photographed Zaitsev's collection in Moscow for Paris Match magazine and has since returned to the Soviet Union for other photo assignments. This season the flamboyant Parisian was invited back, to show his fall '90 ready-to-wear collection and organize the first "U.S.S.R. '90 Supermodel Contest."

Paris-based fashion house Thierry Mugler has tapped Lady Gaga's stylist, Nicola Formichetti, as creative director for its women's and menswear labels. The label said Monday that Formichetti, who is also fashion director with Vogue Hommes Japan, is to begin with the fall-winter 2011-12 collections. Formichetti, a half-Japanese, half-Italian 33-year-old, replaces Spaniard Rosemary Rodriguez. Formichetti will oversee Mugler's head women's designer Sebastien Peigne, formerly of Balenciaga, and head menswear designer Romain Kremer, who also designs his own signature label.

The showing of the major men's fall-winter 2011-12 European collections, which this season run Jan. 15 to 18 in Milan and Jan. 19 to 23 in Paris, are the traditional opening salvo in a seemingly endless globe-spanning fashion marathon that doesn't wind down until the Halloween decorations go up. And, because of their pole position on the catwalk calendar, the men's shows often end up being more than the sum of their parts. They offer an opportunity to get an early bead on where menswear and women's wear designers ?

Paris fashion designer Thierry Mugler is in town looking for "Hollywood madonnas"--not to model in his next fashion show but to pose in a photography book he's putting together. He's been touring the world for the past nine years, taking fashion pictures. The upcoming Hollywood sequence will be set in White Sands, N.M., where Mugler will go with his cast of "madonnas," his crew, cameras and clothing by several French designers.

It wasn't quite the same as being in Paris. But it was close. Instead of sitting in designer Thierry Mugler's pale-blue, 19th-Century atelier on the Faubourg Saint-Honore, Mugler brought some of the atelier to Los Angeles last week. He dispatched two of his top saleswomen, two of his runway models and 20 suitcases containing 150 garments from his early-fall collection.