Designers may come up with fancy flourishes but retailers are playing it safe this Fall.  A walk through Paris’ four major shopping areas — Faubourg, Avenue Montaigne, Bon Marche and Printemps/Galeries Lafayette — shows some basic facts:

Flourishes and flounces are dead.  Let’s keep it simple and classic.  Pleats, of a Catholic schoolgirl kind, are fine.

Black and white are the favorite colors.  Some subdued browns, navys and beiges, and some touches of color in the black and white.  But when money’s tight, let’s stick to the safe tried-and-true.

Shoulders are strong for the younger set, whether cowled, draped, pleated or gathered.

If you are going to open your wallet, you must have one of three things:

– A leather jacket.  In white or black of course.

– A bulky sweater.  Nothing better to keep you cozy and warm when the times outside are dreadful.

– Slim pants.  Skinny pants still are going strong.  Even cargos are close to the body.  But no jeggings, leggings or tights in evidence — with one exception (see below).

And if you don’t have a personal stash of gold, then put some on a clunky necklace to wear with your clean white blouse.

So where can we break loose from this puritanical simplicity?  In the shoes, of course!  Look at these things!  Heels are higher than ever, whether stilettos, wedges or boots.  Six inches and skinny as nails at Christian Louboutin — which killed my planned buying spree at their little store on the Faubourg.  Who can walk in these things?

Okay, so I bought some anyway — but from Costume National instead of Christian.  At last I can fulfill my dream of being 6 feet tall!

And to balance things out I got these cute kitten heels from Miumiu.  I mean, I do have to walk!

Now for the exception to the leggings.  One designer showed laced up leggings at the July RTW shows.  Took the dressers one hour per leg to get them on the models.  So now we have the pull on kind with fake lacings, writing, crochet, dots and, yes, zippers up the back.