PARIS, Jan 25, 2003/ FW/ -- Covering fashion shows is not the glamorous work you might think. What it is, is long, tiring days, endless waiting, a rush backstage where there is blur of buffed men in Calvins and/or beautiful women in nothing, then a race to the press bus, and on to the next event. You loose track of the day, the hour, the world around you.

So, when somebody is kind enough to put a buffet out, and you can't exactly remember when you last ate, it kinda sticks in your mind.

Last summer, our crew ate lunch with the staff backstage at Dior Homme, some seven hours after breakfast.

Before Armand Bassi's show today, the designer from Barcelona laid out a tapas bar full of Mediterranean olives, salsa, seafood combinations and glasses of cool Spanish wine.

Spanish designer Armand Basi appears at the end of his 2003/04 autumn/winter fashion show in Paris, January 25, 2003.
(Photo by Reuters/Jacky Naegelen)

There is nothing funnier than seeing all the cameramen and journalists taking a short break together.

Back to work.

Bassi's show was accompanied by a soundtrack of piano music, which occasionally broke into rock, before coming back to the original theme.

His collection, however, remained classical throughout, beginning with peaked lapel suits worn with Tee shirts, followed by gray pinstripes. Long knit scarves flowed in abundance, and some more adventuresome tailoring featured fabric of brown corduroy speckled with bronze.

The designer also used abstract patterns created by seams to ornament sweaters and trousers.

His favorite colors are blue gray and black used in numerous combinations, with beige, sand rust and even pumpkin showing up in leather.

One particular crêpe-textured shirt stands out among the finale.

In the end, the look was slightly reserved, but then again, Catalan men need very little help.