Louis Vuitton fashion show 2008

At 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, the scheduled start of the Louis Vuitton show, 52 models were dressed and waiting in a line backstage. Marc Jacobs, in a three-piece suit with his hair slicked back, was kidding around. Robert Duffy, his business partner, walked along the line, and as he approached Raquel Zimmermann he mentioned that the models had on pretty lingerie. Ms. Zimmermann lifted her short skirt to show black point d’esprit underpants.

“Remember,” Mr. Jacobs said, poking his head between two girls in the line, “this is a city where even the meter readers wear high heels.” The show was slightly delayed for the arrival of Mr. Jacobs’s boss, Bernard Arnault, the chairman of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.

But in a way, seeing the models in the line told a lot about the intensity of Mr. Jacobs’s affection for Paris, and how expressive he has become as a designer. Make it layered, make it visual, make it personal. The backbone of the collection was the structured flirty jacket — emblematic of Paris fashion. The short skirts were a collage of materials and textures. An Asian influence was marked by metallic obi belts. Ostrich feather skirts, leopard-pattern bags and decoratively beaded shoes evoked Africa.