Model Cara Delevingne takes a selfie with actor Woody Harrelson, rapper Kanye West and his recent musical collaborator Sir Paul McCartney, who were all in the front row as Sir Paul's daughter Stella McCartney debuted her latest collection at Paris Fashion Week. A life-long vegetarian and animal rights advocate, she used 'furless fur' in some of the designs for her fall-winter collection for 2015-2016.

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Paris shuts down on Sundays. Just try to find a dinner reservation; half the world is closed. Fashion Week, on the other hand, is open for business. “Neither snow nor rain” will stop it, as the United States Postal Service’s unofficial motto goes.

Luckily, neither snow nor rain has tried. It is a beautiful early spring here. The American editors and retailers at the shows, in communication with those back home, know not everywhere is that lucky. The snow has been a front-row topic of conversation in the American sections.

Kenzo starts the day. Humberto Leon and Carol Lim love a good show, and that often means going farther afield than might be technically convenient to achieve. They’ve pushed the borders of Paris Fashion Week beyond the Périphérique before. But their questing spirit often reaps rewards: For men’s wear in June, they were the first to use Jean Nouvel’s gorgeous new Philharmonie 1 building, home of the Orchestre de Paris.

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The afternoon will be dominated by Céline, one of a handful of shows that reliably sets hearts beating faster. Phoebe Philo’s domination of the fashion system has scarcely abated since she made the brand an industry darling six years ago. For her most recent collection, for Resort, she offered floor-grazing dresses, chandelier earrings and fringe. For fall, might she do it again? We’ll know at 1 p.m., and then it is off to Chloé, where the airiest, fairest French gamine chic has never fallen out of fashion. (Pay no attention to the fact that its current créatrice, Clare Waight Keller, is, ahem, British.) Bill Gaytten, the onetime right hand to John Galliano and his successor at the John Galliano label, shows his latest after that.

Then, the big news of the evening will be Givenchy. Riccardo Tisci is on an attention-getting roll of late, and made headlines again by hiring an incontrovertible A-lister — Julia Roberts — for his ad campaign. Will she be on hand? Not likely. But the only way to find out is to go.

It's not like lipstick, easily tucked into a jacket, pants pocket or purse.

So how does a lady pack heat — with style?

Models recently walked the runway in Branson in a "concealed carry fashion show" as part of a two-day firearm education and equipment exposition.

A promotional news release said: "This runway presentation will make decision making about the ultimate fashion accessory fun and easy."

Purses with special compartments. Patriotic "On Your Side" holsters from a Nixa company. Accoutrements to help women conceal, carry and still stay chic.

All were on display and trumpeted at the Southwest Missouri Firearms and Fashion Expo at The Lodge of the Ozarks on Saturday and Sunday.

Admission was $5 for an individual and $8 per family, and about 100 people showed in total over the two days, despite snowy weather, said one of the experts in attendance, firearms instructor Stacy Bright of Springfield.

She helped organize and publicize the event, and said, "It was all about educating, empowering and equipping women to make choices of how to best defend themselves and protect their families."

The news release described the event as featuring "the National Shooting Sports Foundation's First Shots program, along with seminars, a shooting range training simulator, vendors and a special concealed carry holster fashion show with a holster auction at the end."

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Several local vendors were also on hand to sell "firearms-related products, clothing, jewelry, women-specific products, guns and ammunition."

Bright, 40, one of the hosts of KSGF's "The Gun Show," said a similar show is being planned at a location to be determined in Springfield. She said a chapter of The Well Armed Woman started in southwest Missouri and is doing well, "at 30 members and growing." There are about 200 such chapters nationwide.

One of the slogans for the Well Armed group that Bright is helping to champion is "Stand Strong and Wear Purple." Another is: "Where the feminine and firearms meet."

Asked what she would say to anti-gun critics who might criticize or mock the fashion show and other aspects of the expo, she offered this rebuttal:

"You can't make fun of people for protecting themselves. When it comes to women specifically, we are the weaker sex. Science will prove that. A gun is the ultimate equalizer."

When my editor asked me to put together a tween fashion column because she was struggling with what to buy her daughters, I may have freaked out a little. Fortunately I happened to have an ace up my sleeve in the form of Mila Eric-Lawrence, one of the most stylish people I know, who happens to be 11 - so I invited her to guest-edit my column.

Tween girls are growing up in this digital era and are constantly connected to the world and their friends. When I asked Mila where she learns about fashion she said, "Basically, Instagram. But I don't really follow celebrities for fashion inspiration. I like Ariana Grande, but her songs only, because her fashion is ugh." And Mum? "I never used to listen to Mum but now we shop online together and choose things we're both happy with."

Mila's favourite is Australian label Seed Heritage (coming to Auckland in April) and for denim, she's all about Just Jeans. And now she is older Mila's starting to look at Valley Girl and Glassons. Her wardrobe has pineapple prints, funky knitwear, washed-out denim, jumpsuits, crop tops and some metallics, which have inspired Get the Look this week. It meets that middle ground between being age-appropriate and what tweens think is cool.

Then check out The Line Up for a few of Mila's Hot 5, including pineapple fashion from Seed, Lush Bath Bombs, jewellery from Equip, bedroom deco from Typo and her new favourite shoe - the all white Nike Air Max Thea.

Being that in-between age does make shopping difficult for both parents and daughters.

I'm sure you've heard your child say something similar to what Mila said next: "Style is important to me - I love it. I try and look okay all the time. I can't wear something that's really bad because it's just like, 'Oh my gosh no'!" Translation: parents take a deep breath.

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Paris Windcheater $49.90
Ocelot Overalls $69.90
Quilted Bunny Bag $34.90
All from Seed Heritage

Get the Look: Tween Girl Style

Outfit 1:
Country Road Star print parka $109
Expressions Wolf print tee $24.99, from Farmers
Next Metallic skinny jean $36, from EziBuy
Number One Shoes Nicky boot $29.99

Outfit 2:
Urban Angel Metallic super slouchy beanie $19.99
Cotton On Teen Kiara fleece $39.95
Just Jeans Junior Luxe biker jean $59.99
adidas Top Ten Hi Yoda $100

Italian Style is that rare show in Portland, like China Design Now in 2009, that immerses you in a place you might never visit. The subject is high fashion, but the subtext is how Italy reinvented itself after World War II.

Don’t know your Puccis from your Pradas? Are Dolce & Gabbana a couple? Why are the discount stores stuffed with Tommy Hilfiger but not Armani?

The exhibit, Italian Style, comes from the renowned costume department of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Three decades ago, shows about fashion and design made that fusty museum interesting again. The V&A’s pop culture shows, such as one on David Bowie, are frequently blockbusters.

Fashion is a major export for Italy. The exhibit begins, as a lot of postwar Italian narrative does, by dropping Fascism like a hot potato and getting into the glamour of the upper classes.

Downstairs at the entrance to the Portland Art Museum there is a long T-shaped runway filled with fantastic modern dresses and suits made by the best Italian fashion houses, including Pucci, Valentino, Gucci, Missoni, Giorgio Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Prada and Versace.

In other museums, these pieces are placed at the end of the show: it’s the “state of the art” section. Here you marvel at the sculptural forms, the fabrics, the craftsmanship and the unending inventiveness of things to cover the human body, before heading upstairs for the main narrative.

There we first see a series of evening gowns in glass cases — bold sculptures made for size-two aristocrats. There is a gold gown with a typical 1950s bell skirt. The dress has hundreds of silk flaps cut on the round, so they look like feathers. It’s made by a noblewoman called Simonetta who, falling on hard times, went into dress designing and tapped her social network for customers.

Many of the dresses in the first section wouldn’t be out of place on a 2015 red carpet. They were shown at the Sala Bianca (white room) in Florence in the 1950s. Fashion journalists were invited to stop off after the Paris shows, before returning to America.

The looks and the quality tailoring appealed to the American market, where the postwar economic boom left plenty of women hungry for glamour and with the money to pay for it.

In another glass case is a blue silk evening bag and a dark wool jacket both by Maria Grimaldi. The jacket is laid out not to show a label — there is none — but the careful tailoring of its red, silk lining. Again the message is Italian craftsmanship was exceptional.

The narrative lurches forward in the next room with the Hollywood on the Tiber section, which shows how Hollywood was seduced by Roman style. When Audrey Hepburn was shooting films such as “Roman Holiday” she was a clothes horse for Italian designers. Her personal life, like that of Elizabeth Taylor, was fodder for the tabloids.

You can look at the diamond brooch that Eddie Fisher bought for Taylor at Bulgari just before she dumped him for Richard Burton. (Fisher sent her the bill, and she paid.)

Movies such as “La Dolce Vita” (The Sweet Life, 1960) by Federico Fellini may have satirized the excesses of the rich and the paparazzi who followed them, but the takeaway was a superficial interest in Italian style and glamor.

Seeing the paisley coat made for opera singer Maria Callas, or the multicolored bikinis and loungewear of Emilio Pucci, we can see how the 1960s hit with the impact of Technicolor, an impact that is still being felt. The fabrics may be fading, but the designs could be right out of an iPad ad.

Pucci was a Fascist sympathizer and helped pay for his tuition at Reed College in the late 1930s by designing outfits for the Reed ski team. His bold colors and shapes got him noticed on the slopes back in Italy. Marilyn Monroe was buried in a Pucci dress.

The rise of Italian ready-to-wear fashion (made in factories by machines rather than pure craftspeople) is the main success story here. But there is a side room with some men’s suits — thick, wool suits that are surely due for a comeback. Or if a 1980s revival is due, perhaps the soft, unstructured look of Armani that landed him on the cover of Time magazine will do it.

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The show comes alive downstairs with the modest eccentricity of Italian fashion; see the multicolored, shaved mink ensemble (it looks like suede), or a Versace leather jacket and trousers covered in fringe. A fuzzy video shot in a Fiorucci store at an after-hours party in 1977 shows a rocker with a beer, a shirtless dude dancing, and lots of New York women with a slight Cindy Lauper look to them. It shows how cool a clothing brand could be. Brands were soon to transcend their designers and owners on the way to becoming the protected species they are today.

A new, high-definition video shows some key figures in Italian fashion — including the scary Italian Vogue editor, Franca Sozzani, who looks like she’s from a Laika animation — talking about challenges to Italy’s industry status. Not only are the Milan runway shows being eclipsed by London, but Chinese investors are buying up Italian marques and know-how so they can stamp Made In Italy on their products. The town of Prato, the traditional center of the wool trade, has the second-largest Chinese community in Italy.

The show includes more than 100 ensembles and accessories, and near the end it includes some Portland designers’ work, including a plastic wedding dress by Elizabeth Dye, just before you are spit into the gift shop for the inevitable retail therapy.

With minimal signage the show forces you to consider clothing as sculpture.