The fashion groupies attending their shows in the past two weeks have already adopted at least parts of the uniform.

Critics have said that for one thing, too many fashion groupies and other hangers-on were crowding into the tents, creating a circuslike atmosphere.

"I don't know how he kept the collection," she said, noting that avid fashion groupies steal outfits.

But this season the black of fashion groupies has seeped into the stores.

"Beyond the fashion groupies, nobody had ever heard of Lacroix," one insider says.

Throughout the evening a throng of bikers, fashion groupies and transvestites hung out near the entrance.

Where there is standing room, and scattered through the audience, the fashion groupies clamor to be entertained.

Normally reliable fashion groupies, who had perhaps caught wind of the sad state of affairs, all seemed to have taken day jobs.

Buyers and journalists from around the world, friends of the designers, society clients and fashion groupies all dress up for the shows.

But it is his eccentricities that keep the fashion groupies trekking to his shows in out-of-the-way places.