PARIS — Sports kit and Greek goddesses from Christian Dior vied for attention with living sculptures from Iris Van Herpen as haute couture went high concept at Paris Fashion Week on Monday. Paying homage to the Olympics a month before the Games in Paris, Dior presented some glamorous if improbable sportswear, including gold-feather swimsuits and a red bathrobe decorated with mosaics of mirrors. Dior’s show was held in the gardens of the Rodin Museum around works by African-American artist Faith Ringgold who died in April.

Its monumental embroideries on the theme of sport are being exhibited throughout the week. Haute couture week features ultra-expensive, one-off bespoke clothing and comes straight after the conclusion of the menswear shows in Paris. Schiaparelli kicked off the week with a “back to basics” approach that dispensed with some of the gimmicks like fake animal heads or the baby robot that drew a lot of attention in recent shows.

“I didn’t want a robot baby. I didn’t want anyone to talk about anything but the clothes. No tricks, no anatomy,” creative director Daniel Roseberry told reporters after the show.

“I kept coming back to this idea that no one knows how to say Schiaparelli, but everyone knows what it means,” he added. Van Herpen’s sculptures Also putting on a show on Monday was Dutch designer Iris Van Herpen, fresh from a blockbuster retrospective of her work in Paris this year. She presented a unique artistic performance for her latest.