The first look on the runway was carried off by the extremely professional Gisele Bünchen and provided the mood for the rest of the show. The black suit harked back to the ‘new look’ heyday whilst the tri-corn hat resembled that of a Spanish bullfighter. The makeup also resembled the same cosmetic artistry of the late 1940’s.
One point of continuity that John Galliano repeats every single season is that his shoe’s although fantastical are totally un-wearable, professionally trained models in his show’s barely are able to walk in them and it is hard to imagine one of Dior’s couture clients actually walking around in them and below are the shoes of the show. One can only hope that this awful fad of platforms will leave.
This look seemed to reference Spain of classical Roman occupation and the graffiti on the walls of buildings seemed to be the base of the face on the bust, whilst the harp seemed to come straight out of a scene from a classical vase with satyr’s and pan-pipers. It seemed that Galliano was not only celebrating the first ‘new look’ of 1947 but also trying to say that classical civilisation itself was celebrating Dior’s anniversary.
The first glimpse of colour appeared in the third look with this simple white dress with a swirling pink rose detail. So where could Galliano be referencing this time? Well if the previous looks have given any clues all the head wear of the show seem to give the answers to this. This simple pink swirl is supposed to be reminiscent of heavy oil paint. If nobody else noticed that the logo’d paintbrush was a simple metaphor for Dior (and Galliano) being an artist.
As the show continued more and more elaborately embellished dresses appeared. It was as if Galliano was designing specifically for catholic, churchgoing Spanish women (who could afford Dior couture!). Only rather then any actual spiritual referencing it appeared more like these ‘churchgoers’ were not worshipping at the foot of Santa Maria but at the church of Christian Dior.
the needlework of the photograph below seem almost like bunting in the 60th anniversary celebration.
Sasha Pivarova looked like she had stepped out of My Fair Lady, or even the church of Dior.
Whilst this looked like a Spanish bullring had been painted pink and turned into a dress.
This detailed shot shows more ‘bunting’ embellishment only this time with diamante.
Whilst this black and blood red frock looks like the bullfighter had been transformed into a woman complete with matching hat.
Naomi Campbell’s dress looked like it had been designed specifically for her as the “African Princess”; even allowing a dash of leopard to the dress. The look showed just how versatile the original ‘new look’ was, as despite the emphasised hips and waist this dress still flows and this might be the first incidence (in my history at least) that a leopard print has actually improved a look dramatically (maybe Dolce and Gabbana should take a leaf out of Galliano’s book and stay away from the leopard print).
Coco Rocha’s dramatic ‘new look’ look continued referencing the bullfighters and even the landscape of Spain (in the flat, rolling hills of the hat and arms).
This stunning high-sheen dress was embellished in such a way as if the purple flowers had organically grown there.
The dress below looks almost like a 17th century ball-gown with the flowing blue goldfish tail and the intricate embellishment.
This chandelier-like gown’s duchesse satin artfully twists around the dress like a seashell on one of Galliano’s Spanish beaches (Clearly no hat to help me out this time but the look seemed so good that I could not, not include it).
Lily Cole’s gown had a glass like quality to it through it’s high sheen matieral that has been died in a way that creates a gradient. Whilst Galliano has ‘sculpted’ it into a sharp, multi-faceted gown. The star-fish in Lily’s hair looks like it had washed up from the waters of the blue gown, thus providing another interpretation to this stunning piece of haute couture.
This final look came out of a Dior masked-ball and there really is nothing to say other then “look at that most amazing craftsmanship”.
John Galliano’s Spanish referencing in this collection was more then inspiration, it was a statement. Galliano has been at Dior for over a decade now and through infusing his history and life into the house on this special 60th anniversary he is branding Christian Dior as the house of John Galliano without words or press releases. On the other hand the big Parisian fashion houses no longer have their namesakes designing for them, whether it is Chanel, YSL or Lanvin. Therefore in this world where someone else designs a houses signature looks, is this really Dior? Or is it forgery? Undeniably this is an amazing collection but is it really right for a house to continue designing when the designer has been long gone? We’ll let you figure that out on your own, the results however speak for themselves. Galliano would never have gotten as far as he has without designing for Christian Dior, and how much does a houses designer design anyway? Gucci has been a revolving door of designers, not just the main ‘creative directors’ like Ford and Gianni but lesser known designers who help with the main line clothing and head designers for accessories etc. Maybe at the end of the next Dior fashion show we should be seeing the entire design team. Yes Galliano is an artist but he has his helpers, and I’m sure that he would be the first to admit that without them he would not be able to pull of 6 shows a year.
Next post will be on the ‘big daddy of couture’ Chanel.
1 comments:
Fascinating! an exceptional designer, John Galliano.
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