Military:

Military trends in Paris were subtler than those in Milan, concentrating more on the historical influences of Napoleonic costume.

At Dries van Noten this translated into fitted tailcoats, while at Dior Homme, Hedi Slimane cut his jackets ever so tight, with armor-like seaming on one jacket that came with edges outlined in sequins.

For the finale, Slimane's models wore dark khaki jackets with frogging at the shoulders.

Xavier Delcour, who also cuts close to the body, showed razor-sharp double-breasted officers jackets in black with silver buttons.

The Trouser Conundrum:

The world is still no wiser as to how a man braving a chilly morning next November will be dressed from the waist down.

Likely very few will be outfitted in Gaultier kilts.

The other choices are easy and flat-front with a flare (Delcour, Kenzo, Dirk Schonberger) or Flashdance-leggings tight (Dior Homme, Louis Vuitton).

For the indecisive, Raf Simons and Rykiel Homme offer slim with a bit of volume.

Knits:

Knitwear wasn't a major story in Paris, but when it did appear it was generally in 3-D form.

At Rykiel, sweaters were composed of a large cable knit.

Gaultier featured large knits with decorative closures, and a novel and softer take on the military look.

The French designer also sent out oversized mohair sweaters that, for the catwalk, came cinched with waistcoats.

At Dirk Schonberger's show, fine sweaters came chicly slashed, allowing a peek at the colored T-shirts underneath.

Straps:

The military mood took on an S&M vibe at Dior, where harness-like leather straps and stays dangled from pretty much everything.

At Delcour, long leather fringe graced most outfits as well.

Helmut Lang's straps came as part of his cut-away flying suit look, and Schonberger kept military and aviation looks light, with an extra-long decorative, gray fabric epaulette hanging from the shoulder of a skinny sweater.

Asian Wraps:

It wasn't a major look, but it popped up in a couple of collections, notably at Kenzo which tapped into an Asian theme which saw a long brown wool kimono jacket and wrapped, double-breasted jacquard coat with Mao collar.

At Rykiel, soft pinstripe coats and long cardigans were wrapped and secured with brown leather belts.

Padding and Perfectos:

Injecting a sense of softness into some collections (notably Dior's hard-edged and leather-soaked offerings), came padding on sleeves and shoulders.

Some of Kenzo's coats were lightly padded, while biker jackets were sleeveless at Margiela, fitted and pocketed at Dior.

At Paul & Joe and Raf Simons, the look was comfier when cut from shearling.

Hermès did the look ultra-luxe in black lizard.

Piecing:

Arcs of color swept across suit jackets at both Comme des Garcons and Y's by Yohji Yamamoto.

Margiela pieced together different-colored sweatshirt fabrics for a pair of drawstring trousers, and super-imposed small jeans in one color onto larger jeans in another to come up with a new pair of pants.

Prints and Patterns:

Raf Simons borrowed from the archive of British graphic artist Peter Saville for the prints on his hooded sweatshirts, and Paul Smith was inspired by Kandinsky and the Russian Constructivists in his prints and sweater patterns.

Rykiel used a shar pei or a tree silhouetted against a somber skyline for T-shirt prints, while Yohji Yamamoto is out to brighten up those dour months with suits drenched in floral imagery.

And at Hermès, Veronique Nichanian looked back to the '70s to re-use scarf prints of golf clubs and blown-up horses' heads on a sexy range of silk twill shirts.

Jewelry:

While the odd chain dangled from the neck at Raf Simons, it was left to Yamamoto and Dior to load up on the stuff as important parts of their collections.

At Yamamoto, models playing character parts had wrists dripping with bracelets and knuckle-duster rings that extolled the virtues of being a "PIMP."

Hedi Slimane at Dior Homme left his simple solitaires and heraldic pins behind and gave his reed-thin models more metal around their fists than Edward Scissorhands.

Helmut Lang

Rykiel Homme

Paul Smith

Yohji Yamamoto

Dirk Schönberger