The Brit pack of the world of haute couture is either drowning in decadence or making fashion history, according to the critics at this week's Spring and Summer Paris collections.

John Galliano, credited with breathing new life into the scene with his showmanship and scintillating style, outdid his previous extravaganzas with a presentation at the Grand Opera House. In the past, he has displayed his collections at the Louvre museum and in a bedroom of former Kings of France.

This time for the House of Dior, he garlanded the Garnier Opera House with flowers. Invited guests watched dancers tango as they waited for the show to begin, while "extras", dressed as sailors, matadors, maharajahs, bare-chested Napoleons and Russian army officers mingled with the potential clients.

Click here for a slideshow of Galliano's Dior designs

Galliano spectacle on and off the catwalk

The theme was a tribute to the Marquesa Casati who had "transformed her life into an Oriental tale, in a Venetian palace surrounded by monkeys" at the turn of the last century. One onlooker said "This party's bigger than any the clothes will probably go to."

But the clothes themselves were opulent in the extreme. A gown with thousands of gems hand-sewn onto it, which took a thousand hours to make and would have cost £50,000 in labour alone, typified the ornateness and sophistication of the haute couture on display.

There were reportedly floods of tears from those overwhelmed by the beauty of the experience. The International Herald Tribune called the show an "Orgy of Gorgeousness." The Daily Telegraph in London said: "Galliano's fantasy reveals the hand of a true genius." Polly Melon, from America's 'Allure' magazine, said: "I have just witnessed one of the great moments in fashion history."

Diana Ross - overcome by the show

Galliano himself, sporting a pirate's band of lace across one eye, made an appearance to receive his ovation at the end of the show. His fellow British iconoclast on the French scene, Alexander McQueen, also won the plaudits with his latest collection for Givenchy, only a week after the founder of the House, Hubert de Givenchy, had described his work as "a disaster".

But after the bouquets came the stiletto knives in this industry of unparallelled bitching and bickering, satirised in the Robert Altman film, Pret a Porter.

"There are murmurs abroad that John Galliano is becoming just a little too self-indulgent and that it is becoming increasingly difficult to find any modern-day relevance in his designs", whispered Suzannah Frankel in Britain's The Guardian newspaper on Wednesday. "John the deluded", said The Independent, "No matter how hard he tries to recreate it, women today - even the ones with offshore bank accounts and private jets - do not live in period costume drama."

Other shows, in particular the Lagerfeld collection, were praised for featuring eminently-wearable dresses and were interpreted as being pointed snubs at the ostentatious Brits and their impractical get-ups.

But Galliano still has his fans among the stars. The singer Diana Ross is said to have run backstage in tears after the show, apologised to Galliano for what she was wearing - a three piece leather cat-suit - and promised to buy her wardrobe from him in future.

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