Dior Haute Couture Spring Summer 2013

Stunning, Brilliant Dior Haute Couture with Jessica Alba, Chloe Grace Moretz, Sigourney Weaver, More VIPs

Tweeting from the front row at the Christian Dior spring summer 2013 haute couture show in Paris, Jessica Alba of “Sin City,” “The Fantastic Four” and “Valentine’s Day” called the spring summer 2013 fashion parade “stunning,” “very modern” and “cool.”

Chloe Grace Moretz of “Hugo,” “Kick-Ass” and “Let Me In” tweeted a one-word description: “brilliance.”

And both stars gave a shout-out – via Twitter hashtag – to Raf Simons.

As Christian Dior’s creative director, Simons designed the collection. Simons also designed Jennifer Lawrence’s controversial and now-famous gown for the SAG Awards, which, by the way, despite the publicity, did not malfunction. Haute couture gowns are often just complicated. Lawrence’s Golden Globes gown also came from the Dior haute couture atelier, even though the “Silver Linings Playbook” star told the red carpet crowd that she didn’t know what “haute” meant.

Jessica Alba et Carole Bouquet by Saskia Dior haute couture

Although perhaps not tweeting to their followers during the fashion show, many others in the audience must have been impressed, too. Certainly I was, as we watched models meandering through a magnificent garden, created for the occasion inside the Jardin des Tuileries.

Also in the crowd were former First Lady of France Bernadette Chirac, Princess Charlene of Monaco, Sigourney Weaver of “Avatar,” Noomi Rapace of “Prometheus,” Carole Bouquet of “For Your Eyes Only,” Leelee Sobieski of “Joan of Arc,” Rosamund Pike of “Pride and Prejudice,” Isabelle Huppert of “Amour,” Ruth Wilson of “Capturing Mary,” model Natalia Vodianova and more VIPs.

Dior had two shows Jan. 21 and Danielle Steel, like me, came to the later one. Impeccably dressed as always at the couture presentations, the romance novelist is – according to many who tabulate such statistics – the best-selling author alive today. Online estimates pegged her total book sales at 500 to 800 million. In our conversation, she gave her estimate at 700 million plus.

Steel’s latest book, “Until the End of Time,” came out Jan. 29.

The garden setting came as a cheerful respite from the snowfall in Paris. The snow made the walk to through the Tuileries a challenge, especially for those wearing fashion-forward shoes. Needle-heels and cobblestones are bad enough in Paris, remarked Anne Crawford of Los Angeles, but needle-heels, cobblestones and snow are too much.

Yet as readers will see from the photos below, the chance to see the new Dior collection was worth the slog through the slush.

To read my story about the Dior show in the “All the Rage” section of the Los Angeles Times, click here.

Keep watching this website in the coming days for more behind the scenes stories from the Paris spring/ summer 2013 haute couture shows.

Top photo: From left, Rosamund Pike, Noomi Rapace, Ruth Wilson et Chloe Grace Moretz at the Dior Haute Couture Spring Summer 2013 collections (photo by Saskia, courtesy of Dior)

Second photo: Jessica Alba, left, and Carole Bouquet, right at the Dior Haute Couture Spring Summer 2013 collections (photo by Saskia, courtesy of Dior)

Third photo: Romance novelist Danielle Steel, very likely the world’s best-selling author alive today at the Dior Haute Couture Spring Summer 2013 collections (photo: SocietyNewsLA.com)

Fourth photo: The final scene in the magnificent garden, created inside the Jardins des Tuileries in Paris, at the finale of the Dior haute couture spring summer 2013 show (photo courtesy of Dior)

ALSO IN SOCIETY NEWS L.A.:

Paris Haute Couture Launch with Kevin Costner, Olivier Munn, Melissa George and Princess Charlene at Atelier Versace and a Word About Angelina Jolie’s Launch of a Trend