French Pairs, àa la Mode

Tunisian-born art director Marc Ascoli, whose saurian presence has been acutely felt by the Parisian fashion scene for the past six years, is picky about his designer clients. Yohji Yamamoto is one. Martine Sitbon, with whom he lives in her airy Montparnasse atelier, is another. Loath to describe his best friend's tastes as eclectic ("Sounds trop chaotique to me," he comments in perfect Franglais), the alchemic Ascoli concocts the Sitbon image out of her zany collections of dandyish hippies and through a sublimely styled runway show and a catalogue that Rizzoli could easily charge for. After five years of agreeing that Jules et Jim is still one of the best films ever, Sitbon trusts him utterly, even with the more sedate collection she now designs for Chloe. Who better to collaborate with on her third project, a men's collection for the 1990s—a counterpart for her foppish femmes.

Ascoli and Sitbon

Saikusa and Mizutani

A perfect little jupe is just a perfect little jupe unless it's in the hands of Paris-based photographer Satoshi Saikusa and his girlfriend, Mika Mizutani, who can turn a piece of taffeta into the petals of a "water lily" framing a mannequin's face, Esther Williams-style. Stylist Mika approaches her frothy-sounding profession with scholarly precision, helping Satoshi create a magical never-never land of Magrittean jugglers, gossamery Barbie dolls, and ultra-modem Theda Baras with nary a tendril of hair or mouchoir out of place. Satoshi's poetic opinion of his home for five years ("The beauty of Paris is tiny enough to take in the palm of my hand") and a mild obsession with toy shops have helped mold this former hairdresser's peculiar brand of ascetic wackiness. They've also helped to establish his reputation as one of Europe's hottest fashion photographers.

CHRISTA D'SOUZA