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Haute couture showings in Paris of the Empire Strapless Floor Length Prom Dress collections indicate that designers have looked to Africa for inspiration, including the incorporation of tribal scarification into some garments, writes Carol Mongo. In a break from the romanticism of filmy pastels and souffle shapes dominating the fashion runways, designers taking part on the last day of spring Empire Waist Sweetheart Long Prom Gown summer couture shows last week took their audiences to another part of the world where colors, shapes and energy are hot, spicy and anything but timid. Jean Paul Gaultier led the way with a show inspired by the splendors of Central Africa. It began with suits and ended with what he calls sheer fantasy. "Why Africa? Because it's beautiful, it's exotic, and I wanted to do it my way,'' boasts Gaultier. It Empire Waist V-neck Slit Long Prom Dress a multicultural mix, an urban woman drawn into the beauty of the majestic African continent. Using seams, pleating and sculpting, Gaultier sent out silhouettes that traced the outline of the body then ended in dramatic flounces, drapes or pleats. Hot, spicy colors with lots of chunky beaded texture made for clothes that beg to go dancing or on an excursion in the tropics. There were suits aplenty, Empire Waistline Long Formal Dress with a paprika red, hourglass shaped jacket worn over a pencil thin skirt. The jacket had a series of small thin bands down the front which Gaultier calls "scars.'' "I looked through lots of books on Africa and was fascinated by the scarification I saw,'' he says. "These were translated as seams and design details using couture techniques you can't find anywhere else. I tried to figure out where the scars would naturally be on the body and incorporate it into those areas of the garment.'' The long, straight lines of a cream white jacket are lacerated, broken by a vertical beadwork placed in the central third of the garment.