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For a time, many industry insiders thought the haute couture shows were in death’s grasp. As fast fashion continued to dominate, and the recession saw the foreclosure of many couture houses, made-to-measure gowns that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece seemed out of touch. But, having just attended eight days of couture shows in three European cities, I think I can finally put that notion to rest. Haute couture may not resemble its former self—and the front row denizens and clients are certainly not who they used to be—but these plus size prom dresses are selling, and some of these fashion houses are thriving. The day after my last show of the week, a Dolce & Gabbana couture menswear show that took place atop the castle in the port of Naples, Italy, I encountered four Chinese women who together had dropped over $1 million on dresses.

But let’s start at the beginning: for the past several years, Donatella Versace has been the first show of haute-couture week, which is fine with me because I’ve been a lifelong fan of the house. (In my childhood bedroom in Missouri, I had collages devoted to Gianni Versace.) For me, the highlights were the gowns with draping over the bodice and down the leg, like the one Jamie Bochert wore in the finale.

That evening, I had a very non-fashion week dinner when a few friends took over the backroom of a restaurant to watch the Euro football match between Iceland and France. We were pulling for Iceland—it was the furthest the country had ever gotten in the tournament—but in the end the Frenchies whooped them. Hold on. Why are we talking about football again? And why am I saying football instead of soccer?

Back to the fashions. Dior was the next day, the last show before Maria Grazia Chiuri, who has been the co-designer with her longtime business partner Pierpaolo Piccioli, takes over the house. Celine Dion attended the show and drew a great deal of attention, which gave me the most amusing fashion flashback—remember when she wore the reversed white Dior tuxedo with the oversize white fedora to the Oscars in 1999? Bless. Celine came to the Giambattista Valli show that evening, too. I wish Celine came to more shows, because while we were waiting for it to start she was singing for us (sadly, no requests), and her enthusiasm for the collections was intoxicating. She jumped on her feet for Giamba at his bow.

That evening, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez from Proenza Schouler threw a Fourth of July party, which I was particularly grateful for because I haven’t had a Fourth of July in probably a decade thanks to couture always conflicting.

The next day was the Chanel show. This season, Karl Lagerfeld recreated his atelier in the Grand Palais and had the seamstresses actually working on couture garments while the models paraded past. Karl, who I was able to interview for CNN Style, told me his obsession was the geometric-shaped shoulders, which were feats of craftsmanship because, as you can imagine, they don’t make shoulder pads in couture shows. It’s always about the gowns for me, though. Edie Campbell closed the show in a pink, puffy, embellished cloud of couture.

Later that evening was the Armani show, which was one of my favorite couture shows thatMr. Armani has done. It was monochromatic and sleek, with pops of silver and elegant tailoring.

That night was the French Vogue party, which is a bit like the Met Ball in that designers take tables and fill them with their favorite fashionable faces, except because it’s French Vogue it starts much later, and you can smoke at the table.

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It was a bittersweet moment when the designers took the bow at Valentino. It was their final collection together—him staying with Valentino, she moving to Dior—and they had big smiles on their faces and watery eyes when they took their bows. The collection was fabulous, a mash-up of the feminine and romantic and monastic. The soundtrack consisted of scores from various adaptations of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the highlight for me being, of course, when they used some of the dialogue from the balcony scene that Leonardo DiCaprio whispers in the Baz Luhrmann version.

After Valentino, we quickly raced to the Louis Vuitton Foundation for Natalia Vodianova’sfifth Love Ball. She is so passionate about her Naked Heart Foundation, which was inspired by her special-needs sister. The foundation builds playgrounds for underprivileged kids around the world, and it’s hard not to get swept up in Natalia’s enthusiasm. I got a selfie withKanye, which I was enthusiastic about, too.

The fashion caravan moved to Rome on Thursday for a fur couture show designed by Karl Lagerfeld for Fendi, where he has worked since 1965, shown on the Trevi Fountain, which the Fendi brand sponsored to restore. (Karl knows how to hold down a job—he’s been at Chanel since 1982 and showed his first collection with that brand in 1983.) I joked that he could have sent trash-bag dresses down the runway, and it would have still been an amazing show in that setting. It’s almost impossible to see the Trevi Fountain nowadays without getting hit in the face with a rogue selfie stick, but luckily for us, the show was a fantasy. Bella Hadidclosed the night in a cape that would have made Zorro fall off his horse. Dinner followed on the Villa Borghese’s Pincio Terrace, and Kate Hudson introduced disco legend Giorgio Moroder to the stage.

And finally, there was Naples, where Dolce & Gabbana hosted a four-day extravaganza that included a fine-jewelry show, a couture womenswear show in the streets of the old town withSophia Loren, literally, sitting on a throne, a James Bond-inspired couture menswear line, and then a late-night dance party with fireworks and a special performance from the Gypsy Kings. When Sophia Loren arrived, people started hanging out of windows and singing to her in the street. She’s more popular than the Pope in these parts. I sat next to Lauren Santo Domingo at the womenswear show, and she was trying to convince friends of hers to get married just so she could have an excuse to see some of the plus size cocktail dresses in real life. Personally, at the men’s show, I was partial to the tuxedo scubasuit. Where else am I going to find one?

The world of couture is fascinating. For some, it’s fashion’s laboratory, where the biggest and most refined ideas are born, and then trickle down into ready-to-wear and contemporary brands, and ultimately into the discount bins on the high street. (You all remember the scene in The Devil Wears Prada where this was articulated by Miranda Priestley, right?) But asKarl told me, for him it’s another planet altogether, and what he does there can happen no where else. Regardless of where or when it ends, this week offered a surreal peek at an old world that has a rich future. And, yes, I mean rich in every possible way.