Christian Dior Designer Bill Gaytten Redefines Red Carpet Fashion

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Christian Dior showed their ready-to-wear fall 2012 line in Paris on Friday, and while there's no knowing how long ad hoc Dior designer Bill Gaytten will remain with the house, this fall collection was masterful. There's supposedly an announcement coming any minute naming either Raf Simmons or Haider Ackermann as the company's new designer, but Dior could do worse than to hang on to Gaytten, especially since someone else will snap him up in a Parisian minute if they don't.

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Since so many actresses love and wear Dior -- Charlize Theron, Natalie Portman, and Mila Kunis (who was at the show in Paris) among many others -- we can be expect to see Dior's silhouettes at premieres and parties in the coming months. Expect for example to see these looks at the Cannes Film Festival in May: fuller skirted gowns instead of 2011's ubiquitous mermaid fishtails, but with much tigher bodices.

Skirts will be made of chiffon or silk -- pleated, semi-sheer and flowing. And not one but two of the gowns were in glorious, soft shades of pink, one peach, the other candy pink. But their armorlike bodices offered a sharp contrast to the soft skirts, radiating soft and hard simultaneously as they communicate a decidedly girlier look than has been seen in recent gowns from other design houses.