Dior puts on dancing shoes to kick off Paris Fashion Week

Dance and theatricality were at the heart Paris Fashion Week's first day of spring shows, as American stars Blake Lively and Shailene Woodley gushed over Dior's balletic presentation at the famed Longchamps race-course. Gucci is holding its evening spectacle at France's answer to Studio 54, the iconic Le Palace — once the club that showcased fashion's most dramatic looks.

Here are some highlights from Monday:

DIOR'S ODE TO DANCE

A model wears a creation for Christian Dior's SpringSummer 2019 ready to wear fashion collection presented in Paris, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018. (AP PhotoChristophe Ena)

To clouds of falling white petals, dancers clad in patterned body suits twisted gracefully to the clicking sound of a metronome.

This season, Dior turned to dance to produce the music and visuals for its spring-summer collection, infused with diaphanous, tulle-rich gowns.

The house enlisted the talents of choreographer Sharon Eyal for a sublime and balletic contemporary dance performance that ran throughout the spring-summer show.

Models wear creations for Christian Dior's SpringSummer 2019 ready to wear fashion collection presented in Paris, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018. (AP PhotoChristophe Ena)

It had the star of "Divergent" and "Big Little Lies," Shailene Woodley, floored.

"You marry dance with fashion and movement and you have a visceral, overwhelming experience," Woodley told The Associated Press.

The runway hall was spacious enough to house the dozen roving dancers thanks to a marquee constructed in the grounds of the historic Longchamps racecourse, which dates to the 19th century and has been the site of some of former Dior designer John Galliano's most memorable couture shows.

Models wear creations for Christian Dior's SpringSummer 2019 ready to wear fashion collection presented in Paris, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018. (AP PhotoChristophe Ena)

BALLETIC LOOKS

As ethereal as a layer of tulle, with the corset replaced by a simple tank top.

That's how the House of Dior described the key idea behind designer Maria Grazia Chiuri's soft and supple 87-piece show in monochrome and nude.

A model wears a creation for Christian Dior's SpringSummer 2019 ready to wear fashion collection presented in Paris, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018. (AP PhotoChristophe Ena)

Few risks were taken in this display.

But this didn't matter since the fashion, inspired by a dancer's wardrobe, was primarily aimed at being simple and feminine.

Jumpsuits, straps and cords featured on silhouettes that were either tight on the torso, evoking a leotard, or diaphanous and floaty, channeling a tutu.

A model wears a creation for Christian Dior's SpringSummer 2019 ready to wear fashion collection presented in Paris, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018. (AP PhotoChristophe Ena)

Ballet slippers evoked the dance tradition very literally, while open toe heels featured crisscross strapping in a take on a ballerina's shoe.

There was a softness to the entire show, and the dappled and misty lighting added romance.

LVMH TO REVIVE JEAN PATOU

A model wears a creation for Christian Dior's SpringSummer 2019 ready to wear fashion collection presented in Paris, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018. (AP PhotoChristophe Ena)

France's luxury giant LVMH has told the AP it will revive the iconic fashion house of Jean Patou.

One of France's most famous couturiers in between the two World Wars, Patou was credited with popularizing the cardigan, inventing the tennis skirt and killing the flapper style. His house was most closely associated with the perfume "Joy," a rival to Chanel's No. 5 as one of the world's most popular fragrances.

For the relaunch, designer Guillaume Henry, who once revived Carven and worked recently at Nina Ricci, has been appointed as artistic director.

A model wears a creation for Christian Dior's SpringSummer 2019 ready to wear fashion collection presented in Paris, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018. (AP PhotoChristophe Ena)

It's the latest in a series of iconic French house relaunches in recent years, including Schiaparelli, Courreges and Poiret.

JACQUEMUS

Striped bikinis and giant hessian bags provided the fun at Jacquemus' simple clothes collection.

A model wears a creation for Christian Dior's SpringSummer 2019 ready to wear fashion collection presented in Paris, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018. (AP PhotoChristophe Ena)

It was perhaps less fun for the scantily-clad models who braved the cold September weather on the outdoor catwalk in Paris' Italian Embassy.

Loose silhouettes and large hoopla earrings gave the collection a confident swagger — a little like the 28-year-old wunderkind designer Simon Porte Jacquemus himself.

Oversized pieces of draped fabric that descended from the bust to floor, and giant skirt frills that ran diagonally down the body, provided the collection's more creative moments.

A model wears a creation for Christian Dior's SpringSummer 2019 ready to wear fashion collection presented in Paris, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018. (AP PhotoChristophe Ena)

The collection perhaps lacked the feeling of luxury normally associated with the Paris catwalks, but it felt fresh and youthful.

Thomas Adamson is at Twitter.com/ThomasAdamson_K

A model wears a creation for Christian Dior's SpringSummer 2019 ready to wear fashion collection presented in Paris, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018. (AP PhotoChristophe Ena)

A model wears a creation for Christian Dior's SpringSummer 2019 ready to wear fashion collection presented in Paris, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018. (AP PhotoChristophe Ena)

A guest arrives at Christian Dior's SpringSummer 2019 ready to wear fashion collection presented in Paris, Monday, Sept.24, 2018. (AP PhotoThibault Camus)

A model wears a creation for Christian Dior's SpringSummer 2019 ready to wear fashion collection presented in Paris, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018. (AP PhotoChristophe Ena)

Actress Shailene Woodley leaves a photocall before Christian Dior's SpringSummer 2019 ready-to-wear fashion collection presented in Paris, Monday, Sept.24, 2018. (AP PhotoThibault Camus)

BERLIN (AP) — A prominent Berlin politician was violently assaulted and suffered injuries to her head and neck, police said Wednesday, in the latest attack on elected officials that raises concern over rising political violence in Germany.

Frankziska Giffey, the city's top economic official, a former mayor and an ex-federal minister, was attacked at an event in a Berlin library on Tuesday by a man who approached her from behind and hit her with a bag containing a hard device, police said.

Giffey was taken to a hospital and treated for head and neck pain, police said, adding they were searching for the perpetrator.

Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner strongly condemned the attack.

"Anyone who attacks politicians is attacking our democracy,” said Wegner, according to German news agency dpa. “We will not tolerate this. We will oppose all forms of violence, hatred and agitation and protect our democracy.”

Giffey wrote on Instagram that "we live in a free and democratic country in which everyone is free to express their opinion ... and yet there is a clear limit. And that is violence against people who hold a different opinion, for whatever reason, in whatever form.”

“They are a transgression of boundaries that we as a society must resolutely oppose,” she said.

Last week, a candidate from the party of Chancellor Olaf Scholz was beaten up in the eastern city of Dresden while campaigning for next month's election for the European Parliament and had to undergo surgery.

Police detained four suspects, aged between 17 and 18, and said that the same group had apparently attacked a Greens party worker minutes before they attacked Matthias Ecke. At least one of the teens is said to be linked to far-right groups, security officials said.

Also on Tuesday, a 47-year-old Green Party politician was attacked by two people while putting up election posters in Dresden, dpa reported.

The incidents have raised political tensions in Germany.

Both government and opposition parties say their members and supporters have faced a wave of physical and verbal attacks in recent months, and have called on police to step up protection for politicians and election rallies.

Germany's federal interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said after a meeting of the country's 16 state interior ministers that possible measures included tightening Germany’s criminal law in order to "punish anti-democratic acts more severely,”

Many of the incidents have taken place in the former communist east of the country, where Scholz’s government is deeply unpopular. The Interior Ministry in the state of Saxony said it had registered 112 election-related crimes so far this year, including 30 against elected officials or representatives.

Mainstream parties have accused the far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, of links to violent neo-Nazi groups and of fomenting an intimidating political climate. One of its leaders, Bjoern Hoecke, is currently on trial for using a banned Nazi slogan.

Alternative for Germany, which campaigns against immigration and European integration, is expected to make gains in the European polls as well as in elections in Saxony and two other eastern German states in the fall.

FILE - Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey attends a commemoration for homosexual victims of the Holocaust, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023. Giffey, the former Mayor of Berlin was violently assaulted at an event in a Berlin library and had to be treated in the hospital on Tuesday, May 7, 2024, adding to the list of the elected officials who have been exposed to brutal attacks in Germany recently. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)