THE ALEX BEALE REPORT Fashion Week Sitting here recalling the many years I’ve spent covering Paris Fashion Week ––I can’t help feeling that maybe I ought to have spent more time covering the fashion “off the catwalk” than that on it. I mean ––I have the distinct feeling that it would have been more revealing about how these big brands insinuate their influence into our everyday lives by covering my colleagues preening themselves in those Parisian eateries ––than maybe covering a brand’s assembly line of preened stick-figures ever could. For example ––It was day two of Fashion Week ––it was the year Balenciaga brought out those safe “office appropriate” power suits for those darlings who were more upwardly mobile than most ––I know, it hardly narrows it down, but believe me ––this year was the year when Madame Corporate Climber was “oh so de rigueur” ––kitten heels were out and cougar claws were in. I normally attend these things alone ––but this day I decided to mix things up