1. Powerful is better than pretty
Phoebe Philo said her Celine show was about "power and women"; Miuccia Prada said her show was about women being strong and visible. When two of the fashion world's smartest and most influential women are on the same page, something is in the air. This being Paris fashion week, it seems appropriate to quote Coco herself: fashion reflects the world we live in, she said. Note that off the catwalk, women have been landing high-profile positions in the industry. Marigay McKee is leaving Harrods to become president of US retail giant Saks, while Stacey Cartwright, former Burberry finance director, is thought to be close to being named the new CEO of Harvey Nichols. In both cases, the women replace male incumbents.
2. Minimalism is over
When the fashion history books are written, the years from 2009 to 2013 will be known as the Golden Era of the Interestingly Plain. The Interestingly Plain was a fraternity inspired by Philo, whose skill at saturating the simplest garment with modernity and cool made other designers frills and fastenings look instantly naff. With hindsight, the writing was on the wall for the Interestingly Plain when two supposed minimalists, Raf Simons and Hedi Slimane, arrived in Paris – and Simons proceeded to flood the city with flowers, while Slimane went crazy for glitter and grunge. Next season will be colourful and quirky (see also flat shoes and punky dresses at Roland Mouret, of all places). Less is no longer more.
3. Fashion week is turning into Frieze
Inevitable, since Frieze has been turning into fashion week for ages. Alexander McQueen has been named the new sponsor of the London art fair when it returns later this month, and you can't move in those Regent's Park tents for fashion designers.
At this Paris fashion week, the opening of the Azzedine Alaia retrospective was a hotter ticket than any show – or at least, it was until Lagerfeld transformed the Grand Palais into the National Gallery of Chanel, complete with 2.55 bags as art installations and framed portraits of bottles of Coco. Chanel's art-themed collection (think paint-chart swimsuits, and clutch bags styled as portfolios) was an art-meets-fashion mash-up tailor-made for the Instagram era. Backstage after the show, Lagerfeld stirred up yet another controversy when he told reporters that he didn't actually think fashion should be exhibited in museums.
4. The Issey Miyake pleat is back
You know the one: teeny tiny sharp pleats, like you get on a piece of paper that's been jamming the printer, but more chic. A technical innovation 20 years ago (the heat-sealing process means that the pleats move with your body and fall back into place), this pleat has been a favourite among the tall-thin-works-in-a-gallery-wears-red-lipstick school of fashion fan for decades. This season, it was back on the catwalk at Lanvin and at Chloe.
5. Diversity caught on!
Ladies and gentleman, a genuine good-news story on which to end the month of catwalk shows. The most talked about catwalk turn of the season was not Miranda Kerr walking at Stella McCartney, but the (mostly black) step dance team that took to the runway at Rick Owens. Celine, a label that has blotted its copybook previously with a string of overwhelmingly white catwalk shows, included more black and Asian faces than in any show of Philo's era. At Givenchy – where Riccardo Tisci has always embraced a broad spectrum of beauty on his catwalk – black and white models wore navy glitter face masks, with sparkly scarlet lips. A statement about equality and colour on the catwalk?
6. Summer 2014 is a waterworld
Some years it is safari chic and desert neutrals, in others it is garden parties and florals – but come rain or shine, every fashion summer picks out a holiday-friendly theme on which to riff. This year, it's the ocean. The Acne collection was named Till Havs – Swedish for "at sea" – and featured fisherman's hats and peacoats. Charlotte Olympia's shoe collection for the season, Overboard, boasted sandals with diving mermaids for heels. It was left to Kenzo to address the more serious side, with a surf-culture themed collection that includes a slogan T-shirt to raise money for the campaign against overfishing.
7. Quality Street toffee penny yellow is the new pink
Breaking news! We have an update on the buttercup yellow trend. Buttercup was all set to be mega in London, but Paris has upped the ante. The colour to channel for next season is, in fact, not matt buttercup yellow but the gold-foil sheen best explained as the colour of the toffee penny in a box of Quality Street. There were gold-leaf ruffles at Dries van Noten, and unashamedly sweetie-pie golden party frocks at Lanvin and Yves Saint Laurent.
8. The fancy parting is the new dip dye
The precision part is back. But the neat side-parting isn't the goody-goody look it once was. Last year's way to incorporate a touch of streetstyle into your hairdo was a pink dip-dye; in 2014, it will be by working a Cara-Delevingne-at-the-Met-Ball rave-grunge plait along your parting. If that's too fiddly, go-faster stripes of gold leaf, at Dries van Noten, were an alternative way to give the parting a bad-girl update.
9. The biker jacket has replaced the Chanel tweed
Here is final proof that Hedi Slimane's mission to make the subversive side of Saint Laurent triumph over more traditional versions of Parisian chic is gaining ground: the new must-have piece on the Paris catwalk is the biker jacket. Whether or not they approved of the Saint Laurent collection, the audience were united in lust for the latest versions (classic and sleeveless) of the house's Perfecto biker jacket. (Kate Moss is already a fan.) At Balenciaga, where a new youthful mood swept the house, a biker jacket was look one. The days when a boucle tweed number was the trophy piece of Paris are over – the biker is the new modern classic.
10. Patchwork jeans are chic
The off-catwalk story to follow is discovering which of the current-season trends have survived the long journey from the catwalk to the showroom to the shopfloor to the front row. Some trends are no-brainers (pink) and some classics never die (white shirts), but each season throws up another category – trends that turn out to be a surprise hit in real life. Junya Watanabe's patchwork jeans are this week's turn up for the books. The real thing are north of £500 – but having been featured on a million streetstyle blogs, the jeans are set to be copied in every high-street store worth its salt by, ooh, a week on Saturday.
