PARIS (AP) — Jean Paul Gaultier sent out models in bouffants, mullets and the kind of muttonchop sideburns last seen in “Starsky & Hutch” in his ‘70s-flavoured autumn-winter menswear collection this week.It was a lighthearted interlude on a day otherwise devoted to the art of bespoke tailoring.

Models strutted out to a disco soundtrack including the Scissor Sisters — pun definitely intended — wearing silky caramel cashmere driving coats and glistening russet ponyskin jackets that matched their extravagant coiffures.

“It’s all in the scissors, cutting the clothes and also cutting hair,” a smiling Gaultier, sporting a blonde Farrah Fawcett-style wig, told The Associated Press.

Beneath the humour, however, were some seriously desirable clothes. The autumnal palette ran from cinnamon and chestnut to mahogany, plum, inky black and henna red.

Trousers in chocolate leather or black velvet were trimmed with cowboy boot leather below the knee and worn with matching shoes for a trompe-l’oeil effect.

Gaultier threw in some glam-rock touches like sparkly lurex leggings worn under pleated kilts. This is, after all, the designer who first put men in skirts.

Britain’s Prince Charles is something of a standard-bearer for wearing kilts, but there was not a knee in sight at the display staged by Gieves & Hawkes, purveyors of bespoke suits to the British royalty since the 1780s.

Guests ambled through an ornate villa that once belonged to a secretary of Napoleon Bonaparte, walking past models who loitered in outfits ranging from a sturdy navy wool peacoat to a bespoke black silk dinner suit worn with a gold military tassel belt.

Though the static presentation was somewhat awkward for both models and guests, it was the only way to appreciate up close the subtle artistry that is the hallmark of a made-to-measure suit.

“We’ve used nanotechnology to create a waterproof coating on traditional pinstripe suits without altering the handle of the cloth,” designer Joe Casely-Hayford said. “The 21st-century man has new requirements, he wants to travel, he wants to feel that he’s comfortable in his clothes, so we’re concentrating on making the construction much lighter-weight, but without losing any of the craftsmanship,” he added.

Conscious that only a handful of men can afford bespoke suits, which cost up to $5,900, Gieves & Hawkes is leading the move toward “semi-bespoke” with a personal tailoring service that allows clients to customise its off-the-rack suits.

True snobs will always know the difference, of course.

Fans of Paris-based Francesco Smalto can spot its suits a mile off, thanks to their distinctive “Neapolitan-style” shoulders — the result of a slight gathering of the fabric at the top of the sleeve.

The French actor Gerard Depardieu scowled in his front row seat as models paraded in fur-trimmed leather coats and black-on-black waistcoats and shirts. Perhaps, like other guests, he was puzzled by the label’s choice of soundtrack — metal rocker Marilyn Manson.

Perhaps it was a sign of the changes about to take place at the house, whose clients include Sean (Diddy) Combs.

Designer Franck Boclet took his bow with Youn Chong Bak, a Swiss-Korean member of his team who will replace him next season.