LONDON, United Kingdom — The fashion season started with a bang in London, moved to Milan where a shock announcement at Gucci captivated the fashion crowd, and reached a crescendo in Paris, this past week, as the first round of fashion shows for 2015 — menswear and haute couture — came to a spectacular end.

Kris Van Assche's beautiful production for Dior Homme drew immediate applause from the menswear tribe in the Tennis Club de Paris, as a dark curtain rose, first revealing white sneakers and then a fully-suited string orchestra, running the full length of the runway and decked out in Dior Homme.

In a church near the Musée du Louvre, Sacai's Autumn/Winter collection was bathed in dramatic light, designed to look like it was streaming through the windows of the l'Oratoire du Louvre, leaving showgoers entranced.

And then, Raf Simons and Karl Lagerfeld wowed us with the high production values of their respective couture shows, which incorporated a Meccano-style set at Dior and a mechanical flower garden at Chanel. Sometimes we in fashion can take all of this meticulously planned detail for granted, becoming accustomed to the impact over successive seasons. But I, for one, left Paris feeling pretty inspired this week.

Yet even with all the sophisticated production in Paris, it was the Rick Owens show that was the talk of the town, not for its production values, but for the parade of male genitalia sneaking out of strategically placed holes in his tunics; a phenomena which quickly became known as "Rick's dicks" and saw #dickowens trending on Twitter. At a dinner one night, a phone with pictures of the show was passed around the table, as everyone gaped at the images.

So, was it a cheap trick that generated short-term buzz or a well-placed piece of marketing that could actually have longer-term benefits for the label? While the show did not have the emotional impact of his womenswear outing a few seasons ago, which featured a plus-sized dance troupe from America, as one observer said to me: "I never look at Rick Owens, but this time I did just because I was so curious. And then, I also looked at the clothes which were really nice. I'll definitely look again."

It seems like Mr Owens scored another marketing coup this season — and without spending a fortune on an elaborate set to create a huge spectacle.

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And don't forget to check out BoF Weekly, a week in review published with Flipboard and updated every Saturday.

Imran Amed Founder and Editor-in-Chief