Mar 10, 2002/ FWD/ --- Occasionally, the key to reading a fashion collection is concentrating on the designer's conceptual vision.

That was very much the case Thursday evening in Paris, when Yohji Yamamoto presented his fall-winter 2002 women's collection in a carefully prepared setting in the Petit Palais.

Their faces smeared, their outfits elegantly deconstructed, the models looked like beautiful extraterrestrials completing a long and entrancing voyage.

It wasn't that they looked androgynous, just mysteriously different -- an effect brought on by yet another clever, albeit at times too fantasy-like, collection from the Japanese master.

The outfits and accessories Yohji showered his attention on were the same as last season: bomber or baseball jackets, sneakers and parkas. But the results were radically different.

Let's start with the parkas. With high courtiers' collars, multi drawstrings at their hem, and an indentation at the back, they looked amazing.

Two navy military coats in Melton wool were both extremely modern and impacted a great sense of security to the models.

Bomber jackets came in padded black or burgundy nylon, elongated to the ankle and rendered new with zips and high school lettering.

And, in Yamamoto's third season working with Adidas, one couldn't help but admire the excellence of the revamped boxing boots and sneakers.

A group that resembled Spanish riding boots but in patent leather and padded nylon are going to be hugely influential.

Paired with black, military-like suits with single leather panels, they made for a great look.

All that said, the show had a slightly stodgy pace and an erratic soundtrack, one minute accordion-driven tango, the next Led Zeppelin at full blast.

But as a vision of another world, spied by the imagination of the designer, this was heady stuff indeed.

Yohji Yamamoto

Yohji Yamamoto

Yohji Yamamoto

Yohji Yamamoto

Yohji Yamamoto

Yohji Yamamoto

Yohji Yamamoto