“Taste is an awful word, no one should ever really use it.”

Kristina Salinovic opened the 54 piece collection of Marc Jacob's SS/2010 collection for Louis Vuitton. Jacobs shared his inspirations with Hilary Alexander of the Examiner of his inspiration: the early work of Kenzo Takada and Kansai Yamamoto—the first Japanese designers to show their collections in Paris. "Of course, these are my references. I love the exoticism, the way Paris embraced Orientalism," Jacobs said.

Coiffed in an hommage to Susan Sontag’s iconic white streak and covered in $20,000 worth of crystal, Kristina Salinovic opened Marc Jacob’s 2011 Spring collection for Louis Vuitton. Printed on the program notes on every seat, the following quote:

“The relation between boredom and camp taste cannot be overestimated. Camp taste is by its nature possible only in affluent societies, in societies or circles capable of experiencing the psychopathology of affluence.” —Susan Sontag

And that’s how Marc Jacobs blends fashion (blunt consumerism);  urban dance culture (Paris is Burning); and that haughty flair inherent to the city of natural and most unnatural lights (“…our favourite colour is shiny”).

“Taste is an awful word, no one should ever really use it.” —Marc Jacobs

Dispelling prevailing agist perceptions of beauty, 90s icon Kristen McMenamy—who at 46 is as fit and stunning as ever—closed the show. Chess maven Carmen Kass (32) and activist Alek Wek (33) both walked the runway, glowing veterans of an industry that sees age as a numbered wrinkle, rather than an expression of life. Because Jacobs can pretty much do whatever he wants, I don’t think peppering his runway with models older than contemporary ‘It’ girls was a risk—no, it’s a clear statement.