Haute couture dresses 2010 | Christian Dior

Forget the “it” bag. Dior called on the chic women of the world to ditch their handbags for a truly useful accessory: the riding crop. The models, in skirt suits of fine red and gray wool, wearing veiled top hats and lace-up boots with towering heels, were all carrying whips, in Spring-summer 2010 haute couture.

Besides the equestrian garb — built on a variation of Dior’s iconic Bar jacket, with heavily draped peplums — the collection also included short cocktail dresses covered in outrageous embroidery and jewel-toned ball gowns that evoked the long, stately silhouette of a John Singer Sargent painting.

Knockouts in the ravishing collection included a shell pink halter gown with a cascading train in tobacco-colored silk and an olive green halter jacket and draped pencil skirt, worn with above-the-elbow fuchsia gloves and bracelets hung with dangling, egg-sized chunks of amber.