An outsider looking at the spring haute couture collections last week would not have discerned that pressure in the mod coats and crocodile minis that John Galliano showed at Dior. Sidney Toledano, the president of Dior, which is a unit of LVMH, said that there has been no attempt to rein in Mr. Galliano and that on the contrary the house is spending more on marketing, for which couture is a primary tool.

　　"John will get what he wants," Mr. Toledano said.

　　Chanel has been owned by the Wertheimer family since 1954, the year that Mr. Lagerfeld began learning dressmaking techniques handed down since the 1920's. And though Chanel today functions like any sleek corporate machine, you still feel when looking at Mr. Lagerfeld's clothes that the most vital part of the mechanism is the seamstress's tiny stitch.

　　At the rate couture houses are closing, in another dozen years the intricate work of the petites mains will probably cease to matter. More than any individual, Mr. Lagerfeld has attempted to preserve needle-craft skills by getting Chanel to buy small suppliers like Lesage, the embroiderer, and by having dresses in his collections, like those in pin-tucked silk chiffon, that show off the quiet artistry of the petites mains. But the situation is comparable to the arrival of the automobile. In time the knowledge of harness straps and carriages was wiped away.

　　Valentino's show was also a first-rate display of workmanship, set to an around-the-world theme (and video montage) that occasionally made you want to plead, "Daddy, are we there yet?" Still, the ride was worth it just to see the finesse of a white coat channeled with white embroidery, the smack of iris and pansy colors and the Harlow glamour of a gown sewn with thousands of pearls and worn with a white mink vest tied with a pink bow. And whereas Giorgio Armani seems ensnared by faultless elegance, Valentino goes for the delicious perversity of a black cocktail dress drizzled with pink ruffles and rosettes. When a couture dress costs $50,000, why confine yourself to the lower altitudes of good taste?

　　Before Mr. Lacroix's show a spokeswoman said no decision had been made about whether he would continue with couture now that LVMH has sold his brand to a duty-free company. Mr. Lacroix was quoted in a French newspaper last week saying that he admired what Alber Elbaz has done at Lanvin, which is to give French chic a modern ease. His show offered such a gambit, with skimmy dresses under clouds of tulle (or a wrapper of khaki taffeta) and an especially lovely dress in pink chiffon caught with bows and laced at the back. The designer who set fashion on its ear with the pouf deserves a fresh start.