Designer Corseted Madonna Back on Paris Stage

Designer Corseted Madonna Back on Paris Stage
When spiritually-reborn "Material Girl" Madonna hits the stage in the world's couture capital from Wednesday, style gurus are likely to be out in force to appraise exactly what she's wearing.

Faithful to her reputation as global fashionista icon, Madonna, who recently changed her name to Esther after converting to Kabbalah, has called on the top names in fashion to design the costumes for her current "Re-Invention" world tour - Christian Lacroix, Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, Stella McCartney etc.

In Paris, where she was originally due to play two nights, 15,000 tickets sold out in only 30 minutes for the opening show and organisers added two concerts. Her four concerts are totally sold out, with some holders offering seats on the Internet for sums of EUR 200 up.

But then Madonna, now 46, has been wowing crowds and setting fashion trends for two decades, from raunchy sex-symbol to hippie-style earth-mother. Big names such as Prada or Dolce and Gabbana have cashed in on her name, as have little known designers such as Belgian Olivier Theyskens, who first won fame when she turned out for the Oscars sporting one of his creations.

Stella McCartney, one of her friends, designed the once-in-a-lifetime dress for her wedding with Guy Ritchie, which was both a good deed and a good plug. In 1990 for her Blond Ambition Tour s