Bouchra Jarrar is a big talent who prefers the small gesture. The ready-to-wear collection she showed at the Musée Bourdelle put in sharp relief the frivolousness of some of the haute couture paraded elsewhere today.

"I would waste my time if I wasn't doing things women could wear." Some designers should have that tattooed on their arm to remind them of their raison d'être.

Couture week means a lot of crinoline, tulle, and taffeta. The word "fusty" comes to mind. Bouchra Jarrar cut through all that like a knife today with another collection that confirms her technique is just as sharp as her vision.

"I'm fascinated by asymmetry," said Bouchra Jarrar after her show. "I'm looking for the harmony in asymmetry, because this is life, I think."

Bouchra Jarrar notes that she’s not into dusty-musty, page-turning research, preferring to find inspiration in the hand of a fabric.

If the clothes that Bouchra Jarrar showed for her second haute couture collection weren't quite as severe as the austere stonework of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs that provided their backdrop, they definitely had a classical rigor about them.