Nilina Mason-Campbell ran around Paris to get a fresh look at couture. Not the runway-shot, brand-manicured take we always get. The street-skulking, exhilarating flash-and-grab honesty of the perennial non-ticket-holder! (It's not our fault we don't know any PRs in Paris.)

This fashion week, we sent photographer Nilina Mason-Campbell to document the goings-on behind-the-scenes. Herewith, models reading, designers preening, dressers dressing, and, um, Alan Cumming.

A Calvin Klein collection under creative director Francisco Costa's watch has a certain familiar rhythm. There are the black clothes, and the white clothes. There is the blank minimalist rigor. There is exactly the one black model.