PARIS (AP) — Spring signals new beginnings. Not only in statement-making prints and new colors — as the Paris spring-summer 2013 season has shown — but in bold ideas that remap the fashion landscape.

One such revamp came in the form of Raf Simons.

The anticipation around the Belgian’s ready-to-wear debut at Dior was palpable: Crowds spilled into the all-white edifice at the Hotel des Invalides and actor Robert de Niro, director Luc Besson and designer Diane Von Furstenberg lined the front row.

And the designer did not disappoint — evolving his own minimalist style with whimsical exuberance and also that of the iconic house, whose codes he mastered, then subverted.

Taking the trend of color spliced with summer black, his pale palette came in yellows, greens, pink and metallic blue.

Brighter hues were served up by Roland Mouret, the master of va-va-voom, and Anne Valerie Hash whose unified collections boasted vibrancy, yet, still, never strayed too far from the black, that’s now a mainstay for 2013.

Issey Miyake, meanwhile, picked back up of the popular trend of color-blocking to kaleidoscopic effect.

Saturday’s shows include dutch design duo Viktor Rolf and the fashion queen of England, Vivienne Westwood.

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CHRISTIAN DIOR

Freedom was at the heart of Raf Simons’ outing for Dior — a confident show that twinned the essence of the 1950’s “New Look,” with the liberated hemlines of the 1960s.

Simons — a minimalist — is in many ways the stark opposite of Christian Dior, the exuberant house founder who favored longer ankle-length silhouettes.

But Friday’s free, liberating display shows that in spirit — if not perhaps in silhouette — they meet eye to eye.

Simons took the “New Look” bar jacket, in black, gray and white and sent it down the catwalk often bare-legged, with the hemlines of the sexual revolution.

It was the same rebellious mood with which Christian Dior founded the house in 1947: His long-length “New Look” shocked the fashion world in its indulgent use of material — a backlash against wartime fabric rationing.

“The foundation of the house is a reaction to restrictions,” said Simons. “I wanted to do that too.”

Do it, he did — not forgetting to have fun on the way.

Cheekily, Simons turned it and other jackets into mini dresses — twinned with black uber-short shorts. Other looks had a dash of Simons’ own signature architecture.

Simons’ has been swatting up.

Where Christian Dior loved garden flowers — here, Raf Simons delved even further into the bushes, bringing back in his jam-jar six sumptuous insect-inspired looks in silk and tulle.

One pink and blue loose A-line used tulle and embroidery to create the translucent veins of an insect wing.

It was details like this that made this collection fly so freely and so high.

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ISSEY MIYAKE

Issey Miyake’s collection was born, so say the program notes, of “vibrantly colored images of birds alighting…and flapping their wings.”

Weaving in the house’s signature high-tech fabric on sheer and tulle jersey, the result: A color-blocked phoenix of a show.

Hues — and also models, who walked in criss-cross formation — converged and flowed. In the process, it added a much-welcome splash of fun to the Paris Fashion Week calendar.

Black graphic stripes blurred in the loose and pleat-rich silhouettes, in lime yellow, cobalt, sky blue and orange, only serving to add to these visual illusions.

Then came the science: The Miyake fabric-lab showing that it’s been as busy as ever.

This season they served up what the house calls “revolutionary” double-sided printing. Revolutionary it wasn’t, but images on the front and back blurred together to produce a nice graphic play.

Models strolled down the catwalk haphazardly in white open-toe sandals.

“Forget spring,” they seemed to say, “we can’t wait for summer.”

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ROLAND MOURET

There must be a lot of pressure on Roland Mouret to break away from the label of the one-dress wonder.

The inventor of the famed cap-sleeved “Galaxy dress,” that’s graced a million red carpets, has, perhaps consciously, been in an experimental mood recently, gently modifying his signature mold. This continues in Friday’s coherent show.

Where last season the silhouettes were likened to an abbreviated 1950s “New Look,” Friday’s show had tinges of 1980s space-age geometry.

Origami-like folds on belts, straps and sporadically attached large pockets provided a small creative twist on a more structured, fitted collection.

Peplums and geometric filets, and one-off pleats provided the creative butter, spread on his bread-winning va va voom silhouettes.

They made a comeback as pencil skirts and sheaths this season in deep green, white and on-trend vermillion.

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ANNE VALERIE HASH

Anne Valerie Hash hit the right spot with her feminine but edgy show, featuring several looks with the top part sliced completely off.

“It was about female self-confidence,” said Hash backstage. And the guillotine effect, too?

“Ah, I suppose I also wanted to have some fun.”

The guillotined materials’ were suspended to the body thanks to a bustier, which gave the shoulders a curious and imaginative trompe l’oeil effect.

High waists and pencil-skirts in many of the 33 ensembles — in indulgent lashings of summer black, power pinks, coral, gold and “electric anise” — gave a structure and confidence to the often super skinny models’ fragile silhouettes.

But Hash — a woman’s woman — didn’t forget the sex appeal too: With stretch chiffon, second skin sequins, stretch leather and satin, many of the looks dripped liquid sensuality.

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Thomas Adamson can be followed at http:/ /Twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP

About to represent Britain in the prestigious Gardening World Cup – which takes place in Japan this month – Wisbech garden designer Richard Miers tells Alice Ryan about his life, work and enduring love of Mother Nature

Richard Miers is clearly a man with a tidy mind. Look at any one of his acclaimed garden designs – which range from compact and bijou town plots to sweeping country estates – and you’ll see evidence of a creator keen on keeping order. Each has a pleasing geometry, defined by clean lines of hedging, paths, walls, espaliered fruit trees or even water, which are then gently blurred by the softest of planting.

“An old school friend maintains there’s an ecclesiastical influence,” laughs Richard. “He says walking into one of my gardens is like stepping inside a cathedral, complete with an aisle and an altar; I do like to have a focal point in my designs, I must admit. . .” The analogy certainly has its merits. Along with their architectural qualities, Richard’s gardens appear both quiet and calming: you imagine feeling cosseted by the velvety hedging, soothed by the sound of trickling water, and inspired by the ethereal plants. Named one of the country’s top 10 up-and-coming designers by House Garden magazine last year, he’s an undisputed master of his art.

Sitting in the kitchen of his Wisbech home – a glorious Georgian townhouse, which has a Grade II* listing – Richard is finalising plans for his latest project: Britain’s entry in the 2012 Gardening World Cup.

Taking place in Japan at the end of this month, the event is now in its third year and attracts entries from as far afield as New Zealand, North America, Europe and the Far East. Funded by a private benefactor, the competition takes place at Huis Tan Bosch, a sprawling Dutch theme park.

Each designer – 12 working on large gardens, like Richard, and a further 15 compiling smaller plots – will spend two weeks onsite overseeing construction. But everything else, including sourcing plants, has been done remotely.

“I got an email while we were on holiday in Greece which contained a photo of a tree, growing somewhere out in the countryside, with the question ‘Shall we dig this up for you?’,” says Richard. “The whole thing has been quite an experience.” In the past, Britain has been represented by Andy Sturgeon of Gardeners’ World fame, who has no less than five Chelsea Golds to his name; it is, admits Richard, ‘quite something’ to be selected for the job.

Inspired by Huis Tan Bosch’s close proximity to Nagasaki, the World Cup has been given the theme of ‘world peace’ by organiser Kazuyuki Ishihara (Japan’s answer to Monty Don).

Leafing through sketches, Richard explains his garden, titled ‘Serenity’, takes inspiration from the Olympic rings – being emblems of international accord – with a series of circular beds built into the design. In the centre of the plot, dappled with shade from mature trees, sits a table and chairs: “It calls us to sit down and talk, which is the start of any peace process.” A rill of water runs right round the perimeter of the garden, flowing smoothly and turbulently by turns; this reflects ‘the ups and downs in the journey of peace’.

At the end of the garden, a huge orb of polished stone shines brightly: the handiwork of British sculptor Emily Young, called Solar Disc III, it suggests ‘the rising of the sun, and the promise that a new day brings’.

Although this is a showpiece, it’s a remarkably liveable design; it’s not hard to imagine sitting in the shade of the trees, enjoying an early-evening glass of wine.

“I design real gardens, even when they are for a show,” agrees Richard. “In my mind, this is a town garden; we’re looking at it from the kitchen window.” Richard has loved gardening since he was a small boy. “My father was in the Army so we moved an awful lot: by the time I was my daughters’ age – Matilda and Venetia are 8 and 7 – I had lived in seven different houses. Whenever anyone asks me where I come from, I say ‘No fixed abode’.

“So I didn’t really have chance to garden until I was at prep school; I would have been 8. The headmaster’s wife ran a gardening club and, if you wanted, you could have a patch – about 4ft by 8ft – to call your own.

“I can still remember the satisfaction of carrying my own lettuce into supper, so I could have a lettuce and Marmite sandwich, instead of just Marmite. And coming back after the summer holidays – to find a crop of carrots – was just brilliant.” With his love of gardening gaining pace throughout his school years, it would have been a logical next step for Richard to do a degree in landscape architecture. But he decided to start work instead – and ended up spending several years as a leisure club manager.

“To start with, you think you’re helping people get fit and feel healthier. Gradually I realised that, aside from a hardcore of members, most people joined the gym, came along for a few weeks and then gave up.

“Eventually I thought ‘The hours are anti-social, the pay is rubbish, and I’m not really helping anyone. What on earth am I doing this for?’. . . I also wanted to get back in touch with nature and the seasons. And I wanted to do something real: there’s genuine satisfaction in seeing a garden – a design which started life in your imagination – coming to fruition.” Deciding to take a design course, Richard divided his time between studying and doing garden maintenance jobs. A dog lover (he currently has two terriers, the elderly Tilly and Coco, a pup), Richard’s big break came courtesy of his then-canine companion, a lurcher rescued from Battersea. “Having a dog in London is a very sociable thing. You find yourself talking to complete strangers; you don’t even know their name, but you know all about their dog. . . I got talking to this chap and next thing I knew I was being interviewed for a job.” Richard went on to spend seven years as right-hand-man to the esteemed Arne Maynard, the man behind this year’s Laurent-Perrier garden at Chelsea, before deciding to strike out on his own, launching Richard Miers Garden Design.

Moving out of London to raise their family, he and his wife settled in Wisbech several years ago and clearly have a huge affection for East Anglia; if they were to move anywhere, says Richard, it would only be over the border to Norfolk. Recent commissions include everything from the 15-acre garden of a new-build Palladian mansion in Surrey to tiny central London courtyards. Most work comes via word of mouth.

“A successful garden doesn’t have to be big: it’s not about scale, it’s about getting the right proportions. And it’s not about trying to cram everything in. For me, a garden shouldn’t shout: it should be restful, a peaceful backdrop to whatever you’re doing, whether it’s entertaining guests or just sitting quietly.” A great believer in gardens being an extension of the house they belong to, Richard likes his designs to be in keeping with the period of the property: “I wouldn’t slavishly recreate a Victorian garden for a Victorian house, but I would bear the history of the place in mind.” All Richard’s designs begin with a sketch, which he fleshes out on the computer – to show both aerial plans and 3D projections. “Sometimes I can see it immediately, other times I wake up in the middle of the night and think ‘That’s it!’ and have to get up and scribble it down.” Along with strong structure, Richard’s gardens boast almost fairytale planting schemes; a favourite palette is pink, white and purple, incorporating both cottage garden classics and more contemporary favourites.

Among his mainstays are Rosa rugosa ‘Roseraie de la Hay’ for heady scent, Geranium ‘Roxanne’ for plentiful blooms, Schizostylis coccinea ‘Fenland Daybreak’ for spirit-lifting colour and the swishy grass Pennisetum ‘Fairy Tails’ for both height and elegance.

“I even read gardening magazines to relax. I think it was Steve Jobs who said ‘If you really love doing something, you’ll do it much better than the next guy’ and I think that’s true. Designing gardens is more than just my job – it’s more like a way of life.”

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