PARIS — In the high-octane Paris couture week, what happens on the catwalk is only half the story.
Actresses Goldie Hawn and her daughter Kate Hudson made a surprise appearance at Atelier Versace in an atypical family night out in Paris. But the real frenzy didn’t start until the 35-year-old ‘‘Almost Famous’’ star turned her back to the paparazzi.
What was revealed — a very daringly placed Versace cutout — was a fashion coup Donatella could be proud of.
Here are the highlights and tidbits of the first day of haute couture collections, including show reports for Atelier Versace, Dior, and Schiaparelli.
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KATE HUDSON SHOWS DERRIERE
Underwear is so passé (ask Rihanna).
Hudson’s was just the latest name added to the list of stars to forgo underwear in the name of fashion. The once Oscar-nominated actress triggered hysteria by posing in a bright red cocktail dress from the new Atelier Versace Spring 2015 Collection with a cutout that demurely exposed her buttock, knickers nowhere to be seen.
Her mother dressed more prudently in a black long sleeve cocktail dress with crystal zipper details from this year’s Versace Resort.
VERSACE
Donatella Versace played it relatively safe this season with a collection of gowns that explored primary colors and asymmetrical circular cutouts.
Knee-high stripper boots and split leg column dresses added the necessary dose of sexuality for the house famed for its unapologetic celebration of the ‘‘glamazon.’’
Though the first looks lacked the accustomed exuberance, Donatella found her footing with a series of shimmering black disc gowns that seemed to evoke the vintage ’90s heyday.
DIOR’S BACK TO THE FUTURE
With ‘‘Star Wars’’ actress Natalie Portman in the front row, the space-age theme — as imagined from the climate of the 1960s space race — was particularly prescient at Dior’s show.
White scaffolding held in place silver mirrors that constricted guests as if in a spaceship, and designer Raf Simons called his couture show ‘‘an alien journey through the past’s ideas of the future to reach the point of today.’’
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It’s a common theme in Dior’s show to anchor the present in its rich heritage. Here, guests saw the cosmic sheen of vinyl thigh-high boots mix with the psychedelic colors of an acid green skirt coat with a retro Peter Pan collar.
SCHIAparelli IS BACK
Schiaparelli’s couture show went back to the light artistry that the couturier Elsa was famed for — and improved in focus, following the departure of the more heavy-handed designer Marco Zanini.
The two-piece menswear tuxedo that opened the show — diaphanous yet authoritative — set the period: the Katharine Hepburn of the glamorous 1930s.