A Fashion Rock Star Returns When Donatella Versace kicked off couture week here in Paris on Sunday night, in a typically opulent setting a few blocks from the Arc de Triomphe, she had a surprise for the audience (and not just the fact that the show began remarkably close to its scheduled 9 p.m. start). When the lights dimmed and the first model strutted out - strutted being the operative word - there was an audible gasp from the well-dressed crowd, which included Uma Thurman, Zachary Quinto and Emma Roberts. Kicking off the show was Naomi Campbell, who was appearing, according to news reports the next morning, in her first Versace show since 1999 after having been a regular for the fashion house since she was just 16. She is now a stunningly well-preserved 43. Hips undulating, hair swaying, it was a performance to behold - one that was greeted with shouts and cheers from the photographers" pit and with a standing ovation from some members of the crowd as she reappeared to close the show. For some in the room, it was not only a welcome return of one of the fashion world's iconic figures, but also a silent rebuke to the very pretty and accomplished - but largely personality-free - models who now parade out, grimly determined and unsmiling, at one fashion show after another. That is not Naomi's way, who flashed what looked like a triumphant smile as she strode the shiny runway surface at the show's close. Before the show, she talked with a few reporters of her long friendship with the designer Gianni Versace, who was murdered in 1997. "He was like a brother to me," she said. So, this is an emotional evening for me.