John Galliano (Q4842)
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John Galliano is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | John Galliano |
John Galliano is a fashion house from FMD. |
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creative director
2002
buyer of graduate collection
intern
assistant
assistant designer
employee
designer
unknown
apprenticeship
hat designer
designer
Editor’s note: When we talk about Y2K in fashion, we talk about a look, but it’s 1999 that is the turning point. As Nicole Phelps turns her attention to this special year, we are adding five shows from 1999 to the archive.The boys were back in town at John Galliano’s fall 1999 show. The previous season’s Roman boy toys were replaced by grease-streaked construction workers romanced by the uptown-girl models. Opening the proceedings were coats in Poiret-like cocoon shapes made using textiles with patterns borrowed from Africa and the Far East. Second-skin skirt suits in gelato colors followed, and the collection concluded with satin slip dresses in jewel tones like ruby and amethyst.
26 August 2024
Editor’s Note: When we talk about Y2K in fashion we talk about a look, but it’s 1999 that is the turning point. As Nicole Phelps turns her attention to this special year, we are adding five archival shows to the archive.John Galliano’s spring 1999 show was a Lawrence Alma-Tadema painting come to life as a tableau. A Dutchman, the Victorian painter worked from London and was best known for his stylized yet realistic depictions of the decadence of the Holy Roman Empire. Galliano attempted something of the same by littering the set with lyres, a rain shower, and a bevy of male models lolling in loincloths among rose petals. Encouraged to dance and emote, the models wore clothes that combined references to the classical world, Romeo Gigli, and Mariano Fortuny, but that—with their 1930s bias cutting—were unmistakably Galliano.
26 August 2024
[Editor’s note: This collection was originally presented on March 17, 1995, in a warehouse near the Pigalle district in Paris, and the photos have been digitized as part of Vogue Runway’s ongoing efforts to document historical fashion shows.]John Galliano’s fall 1995 Dolores collection marks a pivotal moment. It was essentially his last as an indie designer. About four months after this presentation, Galliano was named the creative director ofGivenchy; a year later he transferred to Christian Dior and his namesake brand was acquired by LVMH. Corporate dollars would enable Galliano to further embellish the show template (developed narrative, elaborate mise-en-scène, emotive modeling) that he had made his own.The Dolores of the show title was the actor Dolores del Rio. The invitation to the presentation consisted of pages from the heroine’s “tortured correspondence from the Rose of Alhambra hotel to her lover, Jaime, aboard the ocean liner Berengaria, along with a lock of hair and a broken locket,” reportedThe New York Times.Arriving at the venue, guests were ushered onto a snow-covered rooftop set littered with scows and populated by burly sailors. One of them, the report continued, “with bare feet and red manicured toes leaned against a chimney reading a book calledKiller in Drag.” The model’s furtive movements suggested some unease, but there was no repressing the joy of the clothes.Perhaps most exuberant were the flamenco dresses, which allowed Galliano, who was born in Gibraltar, to iterate on his own heritage. There were ruffled numbers cut on the bias in shades of lavender and fuchsia, andpeinetas(hair combs) took the place of tiaras. The Catholic imagination was also at work. A model in a whisper-light dress of virginal white carried a rosary and was followed by a shipmate wearing an ersatz crown made of prayer cards. The show opened and closed with black-and-white looks, perhaps suggesting that a reconciliation between opposing urges (or good and bad shoulder angels) can be achieved—though likely not for the passionate Dolores.The real, and successful, love story of this collection was that between a man and his scissors. Galliano romanced the cloth with a technical savoir faire that was awe-inspiring. The carnation dress worn by Carla Bruni was not only cut on the bias but seamless, thanks to the floral inserts.
One of these dresses is in the collection of The Met’sCostume Institute, and the catalog description notes that Galliano used the carnation “as a symbol of undying love.” What more is there to say?
26 December 2022
It was action a-go-go backstage at John Galliano. Stephen Jones was tweaking ribbons and hoiking brims; there was a last-minute walk practice to display the required pace and attitude; and then a mortified colleague accidentally walloped Bill Gaytten slap-bang in the kisser. “Call my lawyer immediately! This industry. . . .”Pre-fracas, he’d explained this season’s inspiration wasPicnic at Hanging Rock, Peter Weir’s 1975 adaptation of Joan Lindsay’s creepy girls-gone-in-the-wild, 1900s-set novel. Hadn’t that just been remade for Netflix or something? “Yes, and they should have asked us to do it, because the costumes in it are really horrible.”When Gaytten’s version emerged—at that required, super-fast pace to the fierce, growly tempo of “I Wanna Be Your Dog”—it was the opposite of really horrible. Badass military boots and the soundtrack modernized the vibe, but from the knee northward, this was attire the students of Appleyard College for Young Ladies could only have dreamed of being issued for the term. Ruffle-bibbed pinafores in white, baby blue, or pink were paneled with lace and set with tiny pearlescent beads. Pulled-back school boaters and full-moon wire-frame spectacles completed the Australian late-Victorian-schoolgirl homage. Only the odd twist of layered asymmetry in the hem shape plus transparencies at certain junctures no ladies’ college would ever countenance undermined the illusion. There were other characters and outfits, too. Young men of means wore creamy silk blazers teamed with starched shirts over string vests and suspendered pants. Rougher types favored dirty denim work clothes in a similar silhouette, or an excellent menswear check rendered unusually in a rustic straw shade. The girls sometimes wore school blazers in regatta stripes, or donned puff-sleeved black silk jackets apparently purloined from a dowager aunt, or moonlit in lovely blue cotton-linen renderings of the boys’ suspendered workwear looks. When the dresses became too filmy, staid Galliano Gazette–print big knickers or inset blush-sparing buttoned gussets kept proceedings decent.Backstage violence, repressed (but barely) runway sexiness, beautiful fabrication, and a sense of play and relish added up to a highly successful outing for Mr. Gaytten’s form of young ladies and gentlemen.
30 September 2018
Fake news isn’t always bad. Tonight, Bill Gaytten rolled the presses on the rebornGalliano Gazette, once a seasonal staple print whose circulation fell to zero (kidswear apart) following the designer’s installation as creative director in 2011. Its return on a pleated skirt, underwear, a hatbox, a PVC mac, plus other bits and bobs reflected the brand’s fans’ enduring appetite for editorial directness.Were he not such an outrageously gifted dressmaker, Gaytten could have had quite a career as a tabloid newsman. Check his fake news on tonight: “The collection is presented as the aftermath of a very hot, passionate one-night stand between a young farmworker in the Midwest and a burlesque dancer from a traveling circus. He wakes up the next morning and, not only has she had him, but the circus has left town and she’s stolen all his clothes as well.”Scandal! But where did this felonious clinch occur? “Right by the lion cage—with lions roaring into the night!” Okay, Bill—I’d been looking for geography, not atmospheric embellishment—but that works, too.Gaytten’s embroidery matched that embellishment in his “diamond bracelet” inserts on tulle dresses. He mixed menswear-inspired pieces (knit underwear, lovely dropped-skirt pleat dresses and skirts in check, tailored topcoats and jackets, derby shoes, plus a highly wantable dust bowl denim dungaree) with plenty of ravishingly burlesque-touched froufrou. The closing look was a gently green, long layered tulle-skirted dress with a pin-cinched corset. Reader, she wore a pearl necklace.Gaytten’s Galliano came—again—as a burst of happy professional expression at the near-climax of a season that, as ever, has become bogged down in semantics. Print that!
4 March 2018
Bill Gaytten’s John Galliano collections for men’s Fall and women’s Pre-Fall took a trek—or more like a taste—of Asia as their joined inspirations. “It’s really about surface decoration,” said the designer in Paris this morning. “Focusing on the finishes, the handiwork, and details, such as cheongsam ties or intricate jacquards.”Between the men’s and the women’s, there was a lot of overlap, and much of it was wonderful. A carpet-like topcoat for the guys mirrored a robe-esque version for the girls (hers had tasseling near the hemline). Gaytten aimed, specifically, to invoke the Old Hollywood glamour of Anna May Wong (a very Galliano reference if ever one existed), Tibetan garment-making craftsmanship, and Japanese kimonos. One terrific copper dress had a kimono-like grace to its drape, but with a twisted fabric bunching at the stomach. “It’s called the loop of love,” Gaytten said, adding that it is an established Galliano motif. “I am actually not sure where that name came from!”For the gents, a patterned formal coat stood out—it boasted geometric cyan and tangerine embroidery from the shoulder to the waistline. Likewise a jacquard denim jacket with finely threaded topstitching outlining the shapes of kites. Cobweb knit sweaters—also spun between the genders—were noteworthy, too.In summation: Both collections were a confident, eclectic, offhanded statement in interpretive chic—rich with the languid tone of the label’s founder but tempered with Gaytten’s eye for salable wanderlust.
18 January 2018
I recognized Lady Amelia Windsor only because I am a forelock-tugging Brit and we chatted at Burberry once—she was very pleasant. Plus, those bee-stung lips. But the rest of the influencers in the front row at John Galliano tonight? Heaven knows who the semi-fabulous blonde in the slitted olive dress was; she was sticking her excellent right leg through that slit to the photographers like she was an estate agent on commission and her leg was a condo. And the professionally made-up brunette with a ski-slope nose in a one-shoulder tiger jacquard midi and knee-highs was, frankly, a mystery. As we watched the pre-show cluster-flock of photographers shoot these influencers and more, a normal, lovely looking lady in spectacles and a light blue shirt and I involuntarily rolled our eyes at each other—what a hoo-ha. And yet, this route might well be the best way to go for Galliano. Because, while the man himself deservedly reaps plaudits for his beautiful work at Maison Margiela, his in-limbo own label is still a reputational ghostship. No big editors came to this—no so-called serious fashion people of any significant editorial-fashion-system clout chose to be here. Galliano’s label remains the forgotten victim and innocent bystander of the catastrophe in La Perle. The real scandal in this story is that it’s so good! Bill Gaytten—who gave a special hand squeeze to my fellow eye-roller before indulging in a cheery significant point-and-wave with a very jolly Sidney Toledano—is just brilliant. He seems to phone in the kind of clothes other designers labor over yet get slightly wrong. This was a fun tribute toCry-Baby, in which the models had Johnny Depp hair and occasionally wore drape-draped teddy boy suits to counter the square-but-hot prom gowns and slip dresses that dominated the show. With the exception of the interaction between kitten heel and parquet that nearly sent some models flying—more glue on the heels next time!—there was nothing to do here but enjoy. Among the self-appointed cognoscenti, Galliano remains in eternal purgatory. So let those influencers unburdened by backstory have the chance to adopt it—this brand deserves an audience that can appreciate its merits while remaining ignorant of its history.
1 October 2017
If Bill Gaytten has one of the toughest jobs in fashion, that’s because it’s up to him to channel the vision of the label’s founder, whom he worked with for decades before John Galliano exited his own label in 2011. “I guess if you had to break it down, John was the romantic and I took care of the rock ’n’ roll side,” Gaytten mused during a recent showroom visit.As the keeper of the flame, Gaytten now has the latitude to go with what he likes. For Resort, that means amping up the embellishments, such as blue roaring tiger embroidery on a jacket, a Marie Antoinette portrait on a T-shirt, and pink lotus flowers on jeans or on a trench with a subtle mother-of-pearl sheen. “I love doing the prints and embroidery,” Gaytten noted. “For me, it’s always been about the craftsmanship, and this season we’re having fun with the clashy thing. You can be outlandish when you’re young.” After a pause, he added, “But Keith Richards could wear some of this, too!”For romantic types, there are sequins, embroidery, pretty dresses and embellished jackets; for the edgier gal, wild cat print jackets and studded pieces. After a short hiatus, the Galliano man is back with a tighter collection starring prints and a light camouflage motif as a foil for the lotus flowers. Overall, it might be a little bit loud—but it’s also a lot of fun.
4 July 2017
Bill Gaytten’s John Galliano collections for men’s Fall and women’s Pre-Fall took a trek—or more like a taste—of Asia as their joined inspirations. “It’s really about surface decoration,” said the designer in Paris this morning. “Focusing on the finishes, the handiwork, and details, such as cheongsam ties or intricate jacquards.”Between the men’s and the women’s, there was a lot of overlap, and much of it was wonderful. A carpet-like topcoat for the guys mirrored a robe-esque version for the girls (hers had tasseling near the hemline). Gaytten aimed, specifically, to invoke the Old Hollywood glamour of Anna May Wong (a very Galliano reference if ever one existed), Tibetan garment-making craftsmanship, and Japanese kimonos. One terrific copper dress had a kimono-like grace to its drape, but with a twisted fabric bunching at the stomach. “It’s called the loop of love,” Gaytten said, adding that it is an established Galliano motif. “I am actually not sure where that name came from!”For the gents, a patterned formal coat stood out—it boasted geometric cyan and tangerine embroidery from the shoulder to the waistline. Likewise a jacquard denim jacket with finely threaded topstitching outlining the shapes of kites. Cobweb knit sweaters—also spun between the genders—were noteworthy, too.In summation: Both collections were a confident, eclectic, offhanded statement in interpretive chic—rich with the languid tone of the label’s founder but tempered with Gaytten’s eye for salable wanderlust.
18 January 2018
If Bill Gaytten has one of the toughest jobs in fashion, that’s because it’s up to him to channel the vision of the label’s founder, whom he worked with for decades before John Galliano exited his own label in 2011. “I guess if you had to break it down, John was the romantic and I took care of the rock ’n’ roll side,” Gaytten mused during a recent showroom visit.As the keeper of the flame, Gaytten now has the latitude to go with what he likes. For Resort, that means amping up the embellishments, such as blue roaring tiger embroidery on a jacket, a Marie Antoinette portrait on a T-shirt, and pink lotus flowers on jeans or on a trench with a subtle mother-of-pearl sheen. “I love doing the prints and embroidery,” Gaytten noted. “For me, it’s always been about the craftsmanship, and this season we’re having fun with the clashy thing. You can be outlandish when you’re young.” After a pause, he added, “But Keith Richards could wear some of this, too!”For romantic types, there are sequins, embroidery, pretty dresses and embellished jackets; for the edgier gal, wild cat print jackets and studded pieces. After a short hiatus, the Galliano man is back with a tighter collection starring prints and a light camouflage motif as a foil for the lotus flowers. Overall, it might be a little bit loud—but it’s also a lot of fun.
4 July 2017
Imagine that William Shakespeare grew weary of writing and gave it all up at the top of his game to curate his garden. Keen not to lose Shakespeare’s audience, his producers drafted in Charles Dickens to write under Shakespeare’s name. This worked for Dickens because a painful contractual wrangle meant that his own name was formally no longer his to write under. Oh, fashion.Whatever the oddities to the backstory, tonight’s John Galliano show proved (again) that Bill Gaytten is a marquee talent in his own right who is far too good to merely ghostwrite. Not that he isn’t excellent at it. This ’40s-inflected collection contained wry and ravishing allusions to narratives past—most subversively, the cinched waist and emphasized hip of peacoats in black wool, green velvet, and brown astrakhan that whispered of the bar. Topcoats with bold lapels that would have conquered Napoleon came fringed, embroidered, or in shag-accented black astrakhan and emanated house-signature, swashbuckling romance. The real beauties here, though, were dresses and separates, which (whether in lamé, chrysanthemum embroidered silks, button-studded lilac chiffon, or shimmering tonal grids of beading) were rigorously structured to look fluid and catch the eye with apparent oddities of drape and gather. This was a beautifully tailored collection with a handwriting all of its own—with Stephen Jones’s goat-hair flying saucers floating above as the headline.
5 March 2017
The trend for sheer dressing is showing no signs of slowing down on the runways for Spring 2017, though figuring out exactly what one should wear underneath all these barely there pieces is something most designers have not yet addressed in a real-world way. AtJohn Galliano, the idea of underpinnings is nothing new—the ’30s-inspired slip dress is an established silhouette in the brand’s repertoire. This season bias-cut chiffon looks were accompanied by some delicate triangle bras and high-waisted silk satin briefs made in collaboration with Parisian lingerie label Velvette. Trimmed with lace and dipped in bright colors, the results were clearly too good to keep under wraps; in fact, a ruffled white asymmetrical frock that was worn with hot pink undies had a freshness that was modern without being vulgar.Creative director Bill Gaytten conceived the collection dress-up box style, as if a young girl had stumbled on a pile of cast-offs and assembled outfits with madcap imagination. Military-inspired thermals and long johns were thrown in with the brand’s signature feminine slips, giving the boudoir look that’s been percolating for the past few seasons a nice dose of rough-and-tumble attitude. By all counts, Gaytten knows his way around a flirty cocktail dress, and his most alluring examples were sprinkled with sequins, stripes, and flowers. The striped sailor pants that were lopped off at the hem were a nice proposition for day, and came with traditional finishings—lacing in the back, buttons up the leg—and were rolled down to reveal the waistband of some lacy underwear. Few models embody a sexy-tomboy swagger better than Edie Campbell, who opened the show wearing a similar rendition of that ensemble; the tea-stained effect on her sailor trousers, however, appeared muddy in comparison to the bold stripes. In fact, the collection could have benefited from a bit more color outside of the lingerie drawer. Still, there were lots of wearable options for pretty young things to play with come spring.
2 October 2016
The bias-cut dress is a silhouette at the beating heart ofJohn Galliano. What with the return of the slip, it was a natural place for creative director Bill Gaytten to start. He spliced the femininity of the lingerie-inspired look with more masculine references—the decorated military uniforms as rendered by the artist Francisco Goya being one. Admiral-worthy outerwear replete with epaulettes and grosgrain trimming was thrown over the shoulders of models in slinky ’30s-style frocks in pale shades of pink and icy blue. The girls in the show who wore the pants did so with sweet lace blouses and Edwardian-style frock coats that often had their tails cropped short. There were plenty of other recognizable English eccentricities in the mix too—think pocket watches and newsboy caps that conjured a Ye Olde London consistent withOliver Twist.The boxing boots that were worn with each look were a styling device that felt more in step with the down-to-earth British cool of right now, though ultimately, it was the dresses that held their own overall. The asymmetrical shoulder draping was a flattering alternative to all the spaghetti straps that have been dominating of late, and though it might be nothing new for the brand, it felt ripe for a revisit. Stylish ingenues looking to make their mark on the red carpet scene would be wise to pick up the floor-length black dress that came sprigged with handfuls of 3-D floral embellishments.
6 March 2016
For Pre-Fall, theJohn Gallianolabel is reviving a few much-loved icons. One is the tartan wrap skirt with a side flounce and an embroidered silver-and-gold rose that was worn by Helena Christensen in her modeling heyday. Another is a panther jacket originally sported byKate Moss. And still a third is a sequined, cappuccino-color bias-cut dress with an asymmetrical hem. All classics of Galliano-style glamour. Those will probably move fast.Other looks include a black multi-lace and floral skirt and leopard-print skirt, both tamed by a strict navy blazer and a white button-down; a long, asymmetrical dress in double-faced burgundy and black; and shorter dresses in aubergine velvet. Casting the “demob” theme in the men’s collection in a softer light, designer Bill Gaytten offered a number of graphic motifs, from a herringbone and houndstooth mashup on a sweater to amped-up black and white checks on a fitted jacket and overlong trousers. Denim came in a number of treatments, from weathered to laser-cut, multi-printed, boyfriend, and patchwork. Demob may have been the jumping-off point, but the results pack enough Parisian chic to run well beyond a single season.
29 January 2016
Designer Bill Gaytten worked alongsideJohn Gallianofor about 20 years before Galliano exited the house he founded. For the past five years, he has been quietly keeping things moving forward in difficult times. For Fall he’s offered up several pieces that make taking a closer look at the label worthwhile.As it happens, of late Gaytten has become fascinated with war documentaries, particularly ones that recount how demobilized soldiers began returning to a normal life. “It’s quite touching to watch as they tried to go about getting back to normal, finding a job, getting dressed,” the designer noted during a recent showroom visit. He also looked atCecil Beaton’s photographs of war-torn London. The military, “demob” (as the return to civilian life was known), and Winston Churchill’s penchant for pin-striped suits became the inspirations for a collection that avoided taking elements like camouflage and stripes too literally.In fact, there wasn’t a single pinstripe suit in the bunch. Instead, wider black and white stripes appeared on sportswear like cargo pants and a roomy turtleneck sweater. A khaki theme included a suit embroidered with a silver-and-anise rose on the jacket and trousers. Still, most pieces were more understated, such as a weekend coat with a drawstring waist, a rethought camouflage print in a silver and gray jacquard, and a soft shearling bomber (plus variations on that look for those who prefer to stick with wearing shearling on the inside). Elsewhere, a navy trench worked well when paired with a turtleneck sweater in military orange.In sum, while this Fall collection included just enough statement pieces for showman types—the slope-shouldered oversize leather jacket with check trim comes to mind—there was plenty else to choose from for men who like to keep it simpler without sacrificing style.
29 January 2016
Bill Gayttenindulged in some Anglophilia at his John Galliano show this evening. His was a gloss on the contradictions of British 20th-century style, rather than a straightforward homage to any particular era—there was, for instance, a hint of a country gentleman out for a shooting weekend in Gaytten’s checked tailoring, and meanwhile more than a hint of the punks who sneered at such men in his looks embellished with safety pins and studs.Rave-era anoraks and dress-for-dinner frock-coats also got a look-in on the Galliano runway. But the standouts in this collection were indubitably Gaytten’s frothy dresses. These came in various romantic, barely there versions, some bedazzled in sequins, others paneled in lace, and still more boasting tiers of demure ruffles. The most eye-catching, though, were Gaytten’s polka-dot numbers—the graphic black-on-white pattern made for a nice counterpoint to the looks’ diaphanous cuts. They seemed well suited to some modern-day Lady Mary, of Downton fame—although, the Lady Marys of today would likely be inclined to throw Gaytten’s spongy dun-color parka on over that dress before heading out for the evening. British style is nothing if not eclectic. Gaytten captured that quality well.
4 October 2015
Our review will be posted shortly. See the complete collection by clicking the image at left.
29 June 2015
Our review will be posted shortly. See the complete collection by clicking the image at left.
25 June 2015
The situation is almost unprecedented. Bill Gaytten is designing a collection under the rubric John Galliano, while the man himself is mounting a presentation elsewhere that looks to be getting closer to embodying the essence of anything the world might construe as "Galliano." Gaytten, who has been steward of the Galliano name since the whole dismal incident in La Perle, could justifiably be raising his hands to heaven and bleating, "Oh, Lord, how thankless thou art." Instead, he forged on with a show today that did the job, telling a coherent story from beginning to end, offering bits and pieces that touched on trends, primarily the long coat over the short skirt.Gaytten said it was fabric research that steered him in the collection's Art Deco direction. What would an Astaire-Rogers movie have been like in color? Maybe it would have been beaten gold and silvery flou. Gaytten needle-punched gold lamé and knit together for a tank top and paired it with coppery, cropped pleated pants. Metallic silver jacquards were everywhere, sturdy in miniskirts, achingly fragile in chiffon blouses. Fish were a recurrent motif, embroidered on a one-shouldered evening dress or a short, cape-draped shift.With Galliano himself back in action, Gaytten will have to weather inevitable comparisons. He clearly has corporate support (LVMH honcho Sidney Toledano was front-row center as usual), but someone in a fool's paradise might entertain the notion of a reunion with John, especially when there were such glaring flaws in today's show. (All that red! Ouch!) Gaytten's cut, Galliano's creativity: It was a dream team then.
8 March 2015
With his new collection for John Galliano, Bill Gaytten was inspired by all the things he could do with jacquard. The patterns and textures made him think of the artisanal and the organic, which—in that leap of faith you must take at face value with creative types—took him deep into the jungle: Bamboo prints, wood-veneer-trimmed basket weaves, patterns of scarification, and vivid applications of iridescent plastic leaves window-dressed the theme. Silhouettes were mostly high-waisted, layered or pleated,short—a little on the schoolgirl side. Boxy, cropped jackets, half-belted high in the back, compounded that effect. When hems went floorward, there were floaty mousselines and organzas in vivid jungle greens. Everything was shown with blocky platform clogs.Give Gaytten this much: He has the courage of his unwavering convictions. From the first look (a faux-gorilla cropped jacket made of silk organza tubes arduously applied one at a time) to the last (exactly the same piece, in lime green), he stuck to his guns. To give this peculiar exercise its most positive spin in the light of recent Galliano outings, you might conclude that Gaytten has decided a cartoon-ish, manga-ish path is the best route to the future. Down that road there maybe lies a client for these clothes.
28 September 2014
Stephen Jones has been hatmeister for the John Galliano collection since the Second Ice Age, so he's fluent in the house's vocabulary. And his mention of Nancy Cunard as a reference point for the feathered, crystaled constructions in today's show jibed tidily with Galliano's time-sanctioned appetite for extravagant, eccentric women. But that wasn'texactlywhat designer Bill Gaytten had in mind. He'd been brooding on the furniture designs of Marc Newson: molded plastic and metal, acute emphasis on construction.When you put those two creative impulses together, what you got was something that matched retro—panne velvet, sweetheart necklines, belted waists, flaring skirts, and high-waisted pants—with modern in the form of velvet bonded to neoprene and snipped into crocodile scales, or copper beading that streamed down the seams of an ivory evening dress. "Luxury and femininity" were Gaytten's stated goals, but there was something intensely peculiar about his take on both. For one thing, panne velvet is not a fabric that zings with luxury—ormodernity. For another, Gaytten mixed up a visual effect for his velvets and georgettes that looked like a strange contagion. And yet there was still something appealing about the result, a bit like an adult cartoon. And nothing said that as effectively as the lizardskin shoes with a Mohawk of antelope fur.
1 March 2014
Spend enough time in Paris and you'll notice that jogging has become de rigueur—mainly among men. On weekends they loop around the impeccably landscaped parks, seemingly gung ho to sweat out the week's excesses. And while shorts over sport tights are the most popular way to outfit oneself, heaven forbid this attire be worn beyond the walk home.Yet if Bill Gaytten has his way, guys will be pairing dress shirts with athletic leggings and sneakers come fall. As John Galliano's creative director, the designer has been moving the label's menswear more and more toward the youthful intersection of the street and sport categories. He does this cleverly by applying top-shelf fabrications to high-fashion silhouettes: foamy sweatshirts with overly rounded shoulders, satiny windbreakers and tunics like eveningwear jerseys. Gaytten also tilted the stripes on a dress shirt so that they run diagonally and create the effect of movement. Nothing, however, shifted the intensity upward as much as the knit leggings, skinnier than skinny jeans. Whether solid black or brightened by a whoosh of athletic green, they were the main message below the waist (seconded by sneakers with candy-colored, gently convex soles—not unlike the ones designed to tone the thighs). Only those who won the ectomorph genetic lottery should proceed.It wasn't all survival of the fittest, though. The Stephen Jones fedoras read as a defensive strategy should anyone accuse the collection of skewing too sporty. Leave the organza-paneled shirting aside and the tailored jackets were classic to the core. The colorful hand badges had no particular function except to signal direction (that way to the finish line!). Indeed, Gaytten is not the only one exploring territory that is equally retail conducive and Instagram bait. That the program notes emphasized competitiveness is no small irony. But the guys who side with Galliano can feel confident that their uniform is sharp enough for any occasion…as long as they stay seated.
16 January 2014
Has Bill Gaytten found his groove at Galliano? Falls rigid, severe collection for women put a complete full-stop on the gorgeous but exhausting—and exhausted—creative chaos that defined the tenure of the man whose name is still on the label. Then came a Spring collection for men that hurtled off in a new direction—techno, lurid, courage of its convictions and all that. That direction was compounded today with Gayttens womenswear for Spring 2014. It had a colorful, synthetic, almost cartoonish kick. Like Pop Rocks. Which was why Azealia Banks banging her way through 212 on the soundtrack sounded fizzy enough to dodge the not-her-again bullet.That cartoonishness came through in a sci-fi Betty Boop (or maybe it was Minnie Mouse) quality. There were short, flaring dresses, belted tightly at the waist; zippered neoprenes, eye-popping or icy-cold; embellishments of laser-cut petals, or punched perforations that looked like the notorious hanging chads of U.S. electoral legend. They all contributed to an airy, go-fast urgency that put Gaytten fair and square in Springs athletic camp. And Stephen Jones outdid himself with hats that were either perforated visors or aerated racing bike helmets. In the light of which, a handful of gala gowns at the end of the show felt like an incongruous concession toalt-Galliano, like Norma Shearer, all dressed up, gate-crashing sports night. Mind you, those gowns, made of sheets of organza, looked pretty damn glamorous.
28 September 2013
There's something of a May-December romance to the John Galliano collection at the moment. Where the Fall women's show seemed squarely aimed at established power women, the Spring menswear feels two full decades younger. Backstage after the show, Bill Gaytten used "boyish" to describe the untucked shirts and sweats under jackets. Enough with the tiny, narrow suits and skinny trousers, he added. So instead, he dressed his skinny boys in cool, looser street looks: rounded and cropped blousons over tunics, lean pants with dropped inseams, long coats with built-in layers and vents that unzipped, and roomy polos with extraneous zippered pockets (a few of these could have been zipped off entirely).In fact, the collection was youthful from top (two-tone fedora baseball caps by Stephen Jones) to toe (heavy creepers varnished like blue-black nail polish and rimmed with chain link to emphasize the thick soles). Some of the shoes were topped with spring-loaded clip embellishments instead of, say, a humdrum tassel; they should be renamed and trademarked as clip-clops.Galliano men's line, more often than not, has been defiantly ungentlemanly. But this collection, with its shattered geometric and arrow-print cabans, techno fabrics, and sportswear emphasis paved a new direction for the brand—and proves that Gaytten can compete with the youngbloods.Crucially, he's not lost his grasp on tailoring; all those double layers were built-in to avoid bulk (because most wearers won't have the physique of a 16-year-old). Of all the special effects, the strongest consisted of a paper-thin leather grid of punched circles laid atop an electric-yellow backdrop that appeared on blazer and backpack alike. It pulsed like the music these boys would be listening to had Gaytten designed headphones. Perhaps next season.
27 June 2013
The severe, linear, monochromatic collection that Bill Gaytten showed for John Galliano today felt like a very deliberate repudiation of the label's legacy of languid glamour and heady romance. "I'm not a soft, romantic person," Gaytten said dismissively. "There are no simpering sex kittens, no women who depend on men for their sense of identity." Take that, legacy! In its place, to the dislocated electronic sado-perk of Throbbing Gristle's "Hot on the Heels of Love," the designer offered an uncompromising vision of power women so strict and disciplined it bordered on the militantly Maoist.If the Galliano ethos once embodied a lust for life so hungry and chaotic that it eventually overpowered its creator, Gaytten stripped his look back to a core of complete control—a pointy riposte, perhaps, to all those on-liners who endlessly carp about past glories. Over a sheathed body, Gaytten layered one big-sleeved, wide-pant silhouette that felt like a martial arts reference, or another peplumed shape that had a hint of WAC about it. But then he let himself go a little: red flocking on blue, a shiny print that looked like smears of asphalt, some darkly distorted woodland imagery. Acknowledgments, perhaps, of the DIsORder that Gaytten was once all too familiar with. He knocked it back with an evening group of penitential abstinence, languid glamour fiercely denied.
2 March 2013
John Galliano's name is back in the news this week, thanks to word that he'll spend a few weeks in Oscar de la Renta's New York studio. His namesake collection, meanwhile, continues to skate by at a farther remove from the fashion conversation. Bill Gaytten has a sure hand at the helm—as he did even when his mentor was still in the building—but even the all-star lineup (Stephen Jones on millinery, Pat McGrath on makeup, Guido for hair) hasn't made this a must-see. It's a shame, because some of Gaytten's moments of oddity are inspired. This season, he took his cues from Joseph Beuys. The traditional Beuys felt hat arrived in supersize form. Beuys' taste for felt came in with felted, high-necked shirts, many shown with matching oversize jackets scribbled with chalk stripe or windowpane check, like a parody of traditional menswear. But parody may be the wrong word, because there was less jokiness than before, and more masculinity, albeit of an off-kilter kind. "I think the whole thing ended up quite boy," Gaytten said. "Beuys and boy." But by the eveningwear section at the end, that, too, had begun to unscroll, like the trailing scarves extending from the shirts.
17 January 2013
Bill Gaytten has a lot more time on his hands. He admitted as much backstage after his first season designing at John Galliano without simultaneously being pulled in the direction of Dior.Yet a feeling of urgency was in the air on Sunday afternoon. For starters, reaching the show's venue in one of the outer arrondissements of Paris proved more stressful in the wake of a strike protesting the European Union's austerity measures. Behind the scenes, the collection arrived late. Early guests might have even caught the rehearsal. And then there was the pressing question of where John Galliano (the brand) now fits within a power-shifting season closely watched by fashion types as if it were the presidential election.Maybe Gaytten was able to block this out entirely. Maybe he determined this to be the first real opportunity to express his vision. Codes… what codes? Frankly, Galliano as it was would have less relevance today, so change is good. Still, there was something missing—joie de vivre. Gaytten was so wrapped up in newness, he occasionally overlooked what has always been the heart of the brand: character.The designer effectively established distance from Galliano (the man). If frills remained a focal point for Fall 2012, Spring featured folds on folds. Occasionally, too, overworked fullness. Impressively, Gaytten forced volume out of heavyweight cotton. Think trenchcoat heft. As dresses—particularly one in a punchy shade of salmon pink—the fabric maintained purity of form. Gaytten insisted that the folds, origami-esque on black bandeaus, have always been there, only in the past they were "disguised" by too much decoration and embroidery. "You can see them now," he said. And you can also see how much he fussed over each one.Woe to the bulk for bulk's sake: trousers with bubble trouble and shorts like mansard roofs. Gaytten, incidentally, studied architecture and says he's "more in love with the modern movement than John ever was." All right, this accounts for the intersecting back panels and angular hemlines. Less so the Edwardian-style dresses reinterpreted in filmy layers and "mille-feuille" hats created by Stephen Jones.Large turquoise katakana lettering meant that Gaytten's Japanese influence was not lost in translation. He's not the only designer to riff on kimonos this season; he may just be the first to add in layers, not eliminate them.About that blurred print, it's actually a jacquard.
But yes, you're seeing correctly: Those are cars piled up, bumper to bumper. How uncanny. And how symbolic for a house that still cannot escape its past. Alternately, you could conclude that the other motif—a soaring man in silhouette—represents a self-fulfilling prophecy. Time (but, ideally, not too much of it) will tell.
29 September 2012
What Happens When a Designer Leaves the House That Bears Their Name and How It Soldiers On,part No. 273: While this story isn’t quite as old as the hills, it’s certainly as old as the runways. It’s the tale of how a house sustains itself creatively (and, yes, commercially) when the visionary that founded it leaves. (There is, most definitely, a difference between the two.) Which brings us to John Galliano, the label, which has been without its mercurial and madly inventive namesake designer at the helm for over a year now. The creative direction has been entrusted to Galliano’s former studio chief,Bill Gaytten,who was also doing double duty over at Christian Dior. With Raf Simons now ensconced there, that should, technically, free up Gaytten to conjure up some magic at Galliano now that it’s his sole arena to show what he can do.In the meantime, there has been the likes of a resort collection to think about, which Gaytten and his team seem to see in much more prosaic terms, i.e., it’s designed to sell to the broadest sweep of women, and not just to those enamored of the wildest imaginings of the will-o’-the-wisp who led the way before. That doesn’t mean to say, though, that some of Galliano’s most alluring leitmotifs—bias evening, softly romantic dresses, and jackets wickedly good in their cut and construction—weren’t present, it’s just that they were rendered in the most direct and straightforward of ways. The best pieces were: the sinuous long dress and draped jacket in a satinized linen colored the delicate shell pink of 1930s lingerie; a geometric pattern faintly traced with stars used for an oversize chiffon tee and full silk skirt; a striped silk halter dress that had collisions of pleats falling in different angles; and an undulating yet crisp shirtdress in a highly abstract print that was derived from a Salvador Dalí painting. Its Surrealist irreverence caught something of Galliano’s madcap musings of old, though going forward, perhaps the house needs to look to its own past to invoke more of its delightful daring.
3 July 2012
Why surrealism? "It was a good excuse to be able to do the kind of clothes I wanted," Bill Gaytten said after his show for John Galliano tonight, "doing things you're not supposed to." Many naughty boys have used fashion to bite their thumbs at The Man. But Gaytten's homage to surrealism had a joyfulness not often achieved by any of them, and long since absent from this particular label. Uncouth shall set you free.His collection skipped happily from Magritte's clouds to Dalí's lobster (memorably borrowed before by Schiaparelli, and later Prada), from the flower bed to the constellations. On his list of don'ts-made-dos: top-to-toe matching looks, with coordinating bowler hats by Stephen Jones; the riot mix of print and embroidery; and womenswear techniques adapted for men, like a series of sheer-detailed macro-print coats cut on the bias.One coat toggled between an exquisite embroidered floral motif and its opposite: a graphic print like an X-ray of the pockets and seaming hidden inside. It was followed by a passage of printed snail shells. Abandoning the tired narrative that used to structure a Galliano show opened up the possibility of a stronger, more purely visual statement. "I'm less interested in narrative," Gaytten said. "It's a little bit purer, less overstyled." The emphasis on image reminded you of what powerful ones it's in his power to create.Gaytten acknowledged there's more of him in this collection than in the ones that preceded it. "There always was," he said, "but it was always to John's tune. I wanted to move it on a little bit." And, he added, "I've had a little bit more time to concentrate as well, for obvious reasons." A new era at Dior begins next week without him. But a new era at Galliano may have just begun here.
28 June 2012
Bill Gaytten was well within his comfort zone at John Galliano this season: historicism, romanticism, and a healthy swag of sheer bias-cut chiffon. His muse for the collection—an "aristocratic heiress" at large on her estate—meant there were hints of riding jackets and capes, but Gaytten also introduced the proto-Art Nouveau style of nineteenth-century illustrator Aubrey Beardsley into the mix.It's surprising that this was a first for the house, given that the decadently erotic languor of Beardsley's drawings is such a perfect match for the Galliano look. The dramatic final look in the show—a flowing chiffon cape over little black underpinnings—could have been lifted straight from the pages ofThe Yellow Book, the literary journal that Beardsley co-founded and illustrated. So, for that matter, could the first look, with its ruffle neck and linear graphic-ism.In between, Gaytten gave his own spin to the traditional Galliano codes. What this meant in practice was a certain safeness. It may seem odd to say that in the context of clothes so extreme in their proportion and coloration, but the Galliano bar is set high. So the undoubted commercial spirit at work in windowpane-checked dresses, or blurry blanket-stripe coat-dresses (even if they were micro) felt like the kind of compromise this business needs to grow. Likewise, the pieces that had a distinct forties influence. They formed part of a relatively sober continuum that pointed toward the new realities for Galliano, minus its wellspring.
3 March 2012
Now why do you think Bill Gaytten chose Tippi Hedren as the inspiratrice for Galliano's pre-fall collection? The glacial Hitchcock blonde represented consummate grace under pressure, even when angry birds were tearing at her flesh. There must have been plenty of moments over the past half-year when this designer knew exactly how she felt.Of course, there's a simpler explanation. Utter the words "Hitchcock blonde" and visions of immaculate tailoring and precise elegance spring to mind. And that's just what Gaytten was after with his dressy looks pulled together with head scarves and gloves. The hip-shaped jacket with a pleated neckline belted over a pencil skirt was typical. Trompe l'oeil scarf detailing added some old Hollywood swank to a coat that was already glamorous in crocodile jacquard.Old-school screen glamour is a Galliano staple. Here, it was evoked with liberal use of gold lamé, guipure lace, and the bias-cut gowns that are the label's signature item. A polka-dot devoré was particularly striking. Once again, Gaytten proved that he's the one true keeper of the Galliano flame, but you can't help wondering what he's got up his own sleeve.
24 January 2012
John Galliano shows and John Galliano characters—including, might as well add, John Galliano himself—tend to be drawn a bit larger than life. Bill Gaytten, now stewarding the house, must be intimately familiar with this. And for his new thirties-inspired show, he looked to the work of J.C. Leyendecker and Norman Rockwell, illustrators for the famousSaturday Evening Postcovers of the era. Their men were supermen, too. Call it a tip of the hat from one fabulist to his fellows.The show cycled through the archetypes of thirties manliness: gangsters in their Stephen Jones fedoras and pinstriped suits; henchmen in leather flatcaps and wool; gridiron heroes in helmets and jodhpur-ish football pants; and so on. They had the subtlety of a comic strip, though if you disassembled each look, you'd find fine pieces, especially among the outerwear.But styled to operatic heights, and made up and pomaded by the all-star team of Pat McGrath and Orlando Pita, these goons and heroes were seasoned with plenty of camp. That's the secret spice chez Galliano. It's also the other side of the butched-up thirties coin. Food for thought: Leyendecker also created the Arrow Collar Man, paragon of upright manliness and menswear advertising's first sex symbol. Women would send love letters. The kicker? He was modeled on the artist's longtime lover, Charles Beach.
19 January 2012
Bill Gaytten cut patterns for John Galliano for more years than he cares to remember. "I'm used to putting clothes together," he said after the show today. And that's how he managed to make his own subtle mark on a collection that otherwise honored the codes of the house: tailoring, transparency, bias cuts, frills, ruffles, nostalgia, romance. Gaytten cut a slip of a dress on the bias in pink georgette and beaded it delicately with roses.Thatwas pure Galliano. But the new architectural quality—the fabric inserted into seams, the chiaroscuro black and white evening effects—was Gaytten's.And the squashy boaters were Stephen Jones'. In other words, the world hadn't revolved so far from the team that spun never-ending fashion magic out of complex, celluloid-inspired scenarios. John may not be there, but his spirit definitely prevailed in a show that was built around two Marys: Pickford and Poppins. Gaytten claimed Pickford inspired the silhouette of rounded shoulders, rounded sleeves, and the general sweet spirit of things like the printed lace skirt or the organza dress with puff sleeves that could have stepped straight out of Laura Ingalls Wilder. White linen ankle socks compounded the effect.But Gaytten ultimately fell into the camp of Poppins over Pickford. "There's that thing about nannies," he mused. Not to say that Poppins was a vamp and a tramp, but the show made a slow and steady move from prim and proper to seductive, with a procession of sheer, bias-cut evening gowns. Gaytten was on solid Galliano ground here, and even if the state of professional turmoil in which he has been suspended would be enough to unhinge the hardiest soul, this finale suggested his conviction—"What doesn't break you makes you"—will carry him through to the other side.
1 October 2011
John Galliano went to trial on Wednesday here in Paris, where a packed courtroom sat for seven hours, listening to the designer and witnesses remember (and not remember) the now-infamous evening at La Perle. And tonight, a no-less-packed house—standing-room types stood on stairways that climbed literally to the rafters—took in the first John Galliano menswear collection without Galliano.Big Splash—as the show was named in homage to the 1974 David Hockney doc,A Bigger Splash—took sixties London for its stomping grounds. Pop Art scenemakers provided the juice. First Peter Blake, who inspired military coats and handcrafts like Navajo knits. Then David Hockney, he of the owlish glasses and the thatch of blond, the floppy bow ties, and the color-pop socks. The impossibly beautiful Peter Schlesinger—Hockney's model, muse, and lover—was the basis for the tanned and trunk-clad hunks that made up the undies-and-swim portion that continues to be essential to any Galliano show. And the Mayfair and Soho after-party scene was an excuse (not a bad one, either) for evening deshabille: sausage-tight satin pants snaking with silvery pin details, Le Smokings sans shirts, and so on.The mood was a smidge more pop (soundtrack by the Kinks!) and less operatic than some of the baroque snowfall-and-sandstorm spectacles the house namesake used to stage. But the clothes were not dissimilar from seasons past. Credit for that goes to the house's stalwart guiding spirit, Bill Gaytten, a 23-year veteran of the label (and member of the Dior design studio where, at least for the present, he will also stay). He has long been as much a part of Galliano's brand as the man himself. And after the final two models—long-haired, mustachioed JG doppelgangers—took their turns (just as the designer used to do a full runway spin), it was Gaytten who came out to give a timid bow to an appreciative roar. Dior CEO Sidney Toledano applauded from the front row. And so the world turns.
23 June 2011
A Galliano show is usually an excuse for a fashion bacchanal, the clothes just one component of ason et lumièrespectacular. Now the mighty have fallen. Today's outing consisted of 20 looks presented in a salon on Avenue Foch. But what better testament could there be to the genius of their creator than that there was scarcely any sense of diminishment? In fact, attendees with memories unimpaired by the poisons that have been addling Galliano's own brain were irresistibly drawn back to his epochal March 1994 presentation in thehôtel particulierof patron Sao Schlumberger. That was a beginning, this was an end, but there was the same essence of Dietrich glamour, untrammeled imagination, beauty out of time, presented in an intimate, inescapable way.The thirties line that Galliano always loved was revisited in the rigorous tailoring he excelled at, but it was wickedly updated: Karlie Kloss' jacket was tattered, the fur-collared number that followed was paired with a pencil skirt in latex. The hand of Galliano the master seducer was obvious in a silk jacket in a dégradé plaid, which was belted over a slipdress. Another slipdress was worn under a latex-yoke organza coat. A clutch of the bias-cut beauties that were the designer's original calling card were preceded by Kloss in a breathtaking full-skirted, halter-neck gown with an arrowhead motif. If it couldn't distract from the ugliness of recent events, it also underlined the loss. Likewise, the classically draped one-shoulder closer, which was gathered at the back with pink ribbons. They were the sort of dresses you could imagine in a once entirely justifiable museum retrospective of Galliano's work. But could such a thing even happen now?You might think what happens next could be reasonably inferred from the actions of Galliano's parent company, Christian Dior, over the past week. They've cut the designer loose, which would normally imply that none of these clothes would see the light of a retail day. And yet Dior CEO Sidney Toledano, who didn't mention Galliano by name in his speech at Dior's Friday show, was greeting guests at today's presentation. And, the Galliano showroom is taking sales appointments. The world continues to work in mysterious ways.
5 March 2011
Ballet is enjoying a cultural moment, high at the Ballets Russes exhibition at London's Victoria & Albert Museum, low in the campy horrifics ofBlack Swan.Tipping his cap to the trend,John Gallianoambitiously settled on primus ballerinus Rudolf Nureyev, a figure who effortlessly bridged both extremes. Rudie was a Tartar and a tart, which makes him perfect fodder for Galliano's own taste for the grandly barbaric and the lushly homoerotic. And this time, the ever-changing drama of Mother Russia provided the backdrop. So the show opened with a harried horde of Russian emigrés in great big coats, tufty shearling, and military jackets (more tips of the cap to flavors of the moment). Then Nureyev defected to the West and started wearing tightly tailored pantsuits and caps as a curious analogue of Judy Garland (in Galliano's eyes at least), all the while working himself into a lather at the barre. That gave Galliano the opportunity to parade sweat-soaked workout wear on Simon Nessman, though the model was surely grateful to be wrapped in a chunky puffa.The final passage of eveningwear garbed the dancer for glittering, embroidery-crusted nights on the town in the kind of Cossack finery that would once have been catnip to Galliano. Why, then, did it feel less than exuberant? In fact, the whole show had a flat, low-budget feel. That wasn't even induced by something as banal as commerce compromising creativity. More likely, it was a simple matter of Nureyev himself not being such perfect fodder for Galliano after all, too real perhaps to sustain the kind of blinding fashion fantasia the man has unleashed on us in the past when's he looked to the Ballets Russes for inspiration.
20 January 2011
When it comes to unearthing an evocative muse, John Galliano is famously and extravagantly skilled. For Spring, it was the fictitious-sounding but real Maria Lani. Passing herself off as an actress, she conned the crème de la crème of the twenties Paris art scene (Matisse, Léger, di Chirico, Chagall, etc.) into painting her portrait and then absconded with some 50 works.And so the stage was set. That's an appropriate metaphor, considering the venue (the grand Opéra Comique), but it also speaks to the current iteration of a Galliano runway show, which is so much about theatrical elements cushioning the actual fashion. That can prompt critics to question the validity of the latter, but these looks, each meant to be a portrait of Lani with many variations on hair and makeup, had an undeniable beauty that went to the heart of what Galliano does best.There was the daywear of trenchcoats in lace-edged leather and sheer organza; and then for evening, gorgeous white Poiret-esque gowns with silver beading, and Empire columns with constructed bustiers and a cascade of embroidered petals or feather-trimmed silk. Another standout: the black trench on Yasmin LeBon, with a hem of floral embroidery and flat tiers of ruffles.Like many others this week, Galliano used catwalk vets like LeBon, Marie-Sophie, and Angela Lindvall. Seeing them vamp on the gold mirrored runway, you could blur your eyes and pretend it was 1998. Even if it didn't hare off into unexplored territory, today's exuberant and inspiring presentation, which climaxed with a shower of gold confetti, managed to delight a weary fashion crowd. And that's saying something.
2 October 2010
The biannual John Galliano menswear spectacular began this season with a tip of Charlie Chaplin's bowler hat to his silent masterpiece,Modern Times. Dressed as Chaplin, model Scott Barnhill tumbled out of a huge clock backdrop, and Galliano's movie madness began to unspool. Why Charlie? The rationale was that the designer wanted to make a statement about new proportions in menswear, and the Little Tramp's shrunken jacket and baggy pants seemed like a good place to start. Hence, Galliano's dropped-crotch pants and jackets fitted to the body (exaggeratedly so for the show). A trench in a Lurex military twill might not have been specifically Chaplin-esque, but it captured his flagrant dandyism.Chaplin was followed on the catwalk by Buster Keaton, porkpie hat, lugubrious expression, three-piece suit, and all (kudos to the performances—Galliano is as demanding a director as he is a designer). A group of retro-tailored pieces were really a way of introducing aDeath in Venicesubtext that allowed the designer to flood the catwalk with boys in his bathing suits and underwear, which must be a particularly lucrative license for him, given the amount of show time he always devotes to this passage.The finale involved formalwear literally stripped—like its models—of everything that didn't directly enhance the voluminous trousers and evening jackets, reconceptualized with straps, zips, and a generally brazen attitude. Then an orgy of strobe lighting brought the whole shebang to an appropriately surreal close, with Chaplin, Keaton, and half-naked boys crowding the catwalk. The French made Galliano a Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur for his services to fashion. Next time Hollywood hands out the Cecil B. DeMille Award, Galliano would surely be a wortHhy recipient for his services to spectacle.
24 June 2010
If you felt like you'd seen it all before at John Galliano, it's because you did. At least in some ways: A year ago, he sent out a parade of Russian/Balkan folkloric princesses; this season, as his program explained, "a tribe of adventuring nomads" trekked "through a mountainous terrain, crossing imaginary borders in search of a new land." Last March, there was fake snow; today, his bronzed, bewigged, and behatted models walked through a blizzard of silver glitter. There were some striking similarities between the two collections' clothes, too, starting with the very first pannier-skirted caban coat.Of course, Galliano's workmanship was, as ever, top-notch. And the imaginative melding of cultures and eras into single outfits—a popular theme this weekend, with Jean Paul Gaultier exploring similar territory—was something to marvel at, too, especially near the end, when bias-cut gowns aswirl with yak fur (not as strange as it sounds) made their grand entrance.However, now, even more than a year ago, there is a rather glaring disconnect between this spectacle of a show and the bigger fashion picture, with its new focus on simplicity. The fireworks (yes, fireworks) that accompanied Galliano's bow only threw that disparity into higher relief.
6 March 2010
Style.com did not review the Fall 2010 menswear collections. Please enjoy the photos, and stay tuned for our complete coverage of the Spring 2011 collections, including reviews of each show by Tim Blanks.
21 January 2010
This season, there's been obsessive talk about the possibilities of making fashion events public via revolutionary digital technologies, so it takes an extra-special mustering of talent to remind everyone how unique an experience a great show can be in real time, witnessed on the spot. For Spring, John Galliano did just that, conjuring up a magical scenario on a laser-lit runway, upon which floating bubbles descended and then—poof!—evaporated into vapor. It created a dreamy parallel world for one of his best collections in a long time: a show poignantly evoking the era when the heroines of silent movies were facing their career demise."It came from a research trip to L.A.," Galliano said. "I went around the old houses of Hollywood and imagined how stars like Tallulah Bankhead, Lillian Gish, and Mary Pickford lived." It gave him an ideal justification for playing to his strengths in poetically glamorous chiffon; bias-cut little nothings; fragile, delightful plissé puff-shouldered blouses and bed jackets; and coats symbolically decorated with clusters of flowers made out of film gel. Galliano's color sense—the ice blues, silver lamés, powder pinks, and lemons—was exquisite; it was his fashion version ofSunset Boulevard.This, of course, is the romantic territory Galliano has owned for years, but somehow, seen in this laser-created futuristic light, its imagery jumped to a new relevance. Triumphantly desirable as the clothes were, their meaning seemed doubly poignant—mirroring a moment when a new technology was putting an old world out of business.
6 October 2009
Style.com did not review the Spring 2010 menswear collections. Please enjoy the photos, and stay tuned for our complete coverage of the Spring 2011 collections, including reviews of each show by Tim Blanks.
25 June 2009
John Galliano struck out on his own into the frozen wastes of Russian-Balkan folklore for Fall. A micro-bubble snowstorm was falling on the runway, and a trick of laser lighting created a magical illusion that the models were walking in some fairy-tale tunnel far, far removed from the brutish realities of humankind's current worries. It was theater, escapism—the creation of a parallel fantasy world upon which the concerns of "fashion" barely impinged.Oodles of embroidery and workmanship and a ton of research into folk costume had been lavished on the details of the pannier-hipped, full-skirted coats, balloon-sleeved peasant blouses, bodices, headdresses, and pompom-trimmed cross-laced boots. Toward the end, the show moved into more traditional Galliano territory with a sequence of spun-silver bias-cut dresses that had all the delicate romance his fans adore.Technically, it was faultlessly accomplished and—for anyone put off by the blanket of black that has fallen over many of the collections—offered some of the season's few opportunities to pick up color. But it remains to be seen whether those will be strong enough attractions to outweigh the fact that this show had very little to do with anything else that's going on.
10 March 2009
James Gillray and the Queen Mum. You had to be a bit of a British art-history nerd to get the references John Galliano was dispensing backstage to mostly blank looks from fashion correspondents. But thank goodness for Stephen Jones' erudition on historical headgear—and Google backup—because here we are at the source: outrageous Regency cartoons of silly fashions from the Napoleonic war era, giant plumed military helmets, overblown mob-caps, and indecently transparent dresses. Sorted. (Oh, apart from the Queen Mummery, which equals the sweet pea florals, of course.)But did one actually need to know this to understand the collection? Hardly, because as accomplished as the backstage history boys may be, this was a show of tried-and-trusted Galliano classics put out at a moment when he's essentially brought his runway antics to a stop. What's walking out now are simplified, understandable pieces: parka-derived daywear with vestiges of military frogging in tape; little drapey jersey dresses; fragile rosette-sleeved cardigans; tiny, flippy ruffled floral skirts.In one way, that challenges the idea that a fashion show has to be newsy to be worthwhile—though it's a harder case to make when a resentful, exhausted audience is expected to travel an hour on a cold Saturday night to an insalubrious quarter of Paris to view it. To justify this, Galliano needed to pull something special out of his hat. He did, eventually, in an evening section in which his fragile, sheer, spangled, romantically tinted and flower-printed dresses briefly settled onlookers into a serene state of appreciation. If there are parties to go to next season, these are the kinds of dresses many girls might dream of wearing to them. With an underslip, of course.
3 October 2008
"She's a kid playing around with Hollywood glamour," said John Galliano of the melee of bright, printed forties frocks andGossip Girlstyling he worked for Resort. The look: a lot of chiffon drapery in sugary apricot and mint, worn with vivid Ocean Drive palm-tree prints, footless tights, and multicolored wedges. His theme worked best in the exuberant jewelry: mismatched jumbles of enameled Deco-like chunks, pavé-set diamanté, glass, and plastic collaged into great-looking necklaces.
6 July 2008
The colorful tumult of characters that peopled John Galliano's finale looked like someone had tipped a box of candies on the catwalk. It was almost impossible to absorb the spectacle. But information overload is one of Galliano's most perceptive contributions to the modern fashion lexicon. If his usual polyglot cast of thousands included manga boys from Osaka, Pearly Kings from London's East End, and fearsome Gurkha warriors (plus Jack the Ripper and Quentin Crisp), the thread that held them all together was PUNK. Galliano remains fashion's standard-bearer for his original anarchic, anything-is-possible spirit, and he continues to unhinge the considered response to what he's doing by dumping so much on his audience that you can barely pause to wonder if you've been had (and that's a pretty punk reaction in itself).It's become a somewhat formulaic response to play hunt-the-real-clothes in one of Galliano's fashion farragoes, but here goes: the brown leather jacket with the Nehru collar, the madras bits and pieces, a tailored navy jacket with white piping, a pinstriped duster, the croc-stamped biker jacket…I could witter on. But that response can't do justice to the effort of the Galliano team. There was, for example, the segment where Galliano was promoting his underwear license, which was staged as a salute to Quentin Crisp, one of the last great English eccentrics. Milliner Stephen Jones rose to the occasion with a set of supernal hats, and hair and makeup gurus Julien d'Ys and Pat McGrath made a glam-rock moment live again. Anything to juice the jocks. Thus did a tip of the cap to a burgeoning corner of the Galliano empire become a splendid piece of entertainment—as well as a reminder that if the Galliano team were having a party while they were making this stuff, they were generous enough to let us in later.
26 June 2008
Where were we? Kubla Khan's stately pleasure dome, suggested the invite; a Vegas-style Buddha-themed garden, suggested the set—and a cavernous hall somewhere on the far-flung outskirts of Paris, according to the map. In fact, once the show actually started, we were firmly back in familiar John Galliano territory, the place where he gets to do all the things he loves with bias cutting, retro coats, and overblown headgear.After the eye clicked onto the Poiret-period Orientalist houri pants and tassel-detailed, handkerchief-point gowns, the significance of the backdrop snapped into focus: It was a pastiche of a Rudolf Valentino-era silent-movie set, and Galliano was dressing the leading lady. He always adores a crazed actress as a muse, of course, though she's never one to be relied upon to stick to any literal script. This season, as ever, her wardrobe slipped between decades—from fragile bias-cut thirties chiffons and ruffled furs to forties-print dresses and flowerpot fifties hats to gargantuan knitted caps that could only have been dreamed up yesterday.If it didn't make for one of Galliano's wildest collections, it will look good in stores. His delicious palette of dusty salmon pinks, pale blues, teals, and burgundies is guaranteed to reverberate amongst the sea of black that's destined to hit racks this fall. On top of that, there's news for fans to check out: Right on time to catch the season's excitement about jewelry, Galliano is launching his own line, which liberally bedecked the girls in the form of oversized brooches and neckpieces.
29 February 2008
Backstage, John Galliano was wearing a worn-out leather jacket with a blurry mustachioed face painted on the back. He insisted it was Einstein, but it looked just like Edgar Allan Poe, which worked because Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" was as good a reference point as any to launch a dissection of Galliano's latest fashion delirium. That story's depiction of a decadent society partying itself to death rang those odd sociopolitical bells that Galliano willfully gongs on a regular basis. He blithely quipped that his underwear licensees would be cheered by a middle passage of bruised, bloodied models in skimpy underthings, but there were those in the audience who saw echoes of Clive Barker'sHellraiser—or Abu Ghraib.Galliano claimed inspiration from the "frost fairs" of Tudor England, when the Thames would freeze over and the entire community—from aristos to lowlifes—would turn out to party on the river. The designer saw his first group as princelings moving among the people, with their gilded hair and Tudor-look outfits artfully bunched and wrapped from parkas, shearlings, jackets, and coats. None of the mannequins seemed to actually bewearingthe clothes they had on, but we got the picture (and if your eye for detail could penetrate the farrago, there were items as beautiful as a jacket with metal-beaded hem and sleeves, and a fur-trimmed parka with oriental dragons scrolling up its sleeve). Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII was a big influence, apparently, and there was definitely a Tudor volume in the doublet-and-hose effect of big black velvet parkas trimmed in fur.Thus ended our fashion show for the evening. Then began the descent into Galliano's Chamber of Horrors—the torturers, the tortured, the carnival in hell that closed the presentation, with the devil's jester minions capering on humanity's grave. Gee, someone's gotta do it, and it might as well be Galliano, with a sense of theatricality so acute it makes one wonder whether he's missed his calling. No, the designer enthused backstage, he's actually sellingclothes. "It's about time we did some advertising and opened a shop for Galliano Homme," he declared pointedly. After a collection like this, it's no wonder he craves a bigger stage.
17 January 2008
In this year's international league of annoying show venues, John Galliano swept all the trophies. Who else could sit around in a planning meeting and think,Hmm, there's a major rugby match in Paris on Saturday night. The police will be blocking off streets. So let's send the editors into the stadium just as the fans are coming out!Whatever inspired him—whether malevolent mischief or pure ivory-tower obliviousness—the man had a lot of hard tap dancing to do to charm his platform-shod audience once they'd abandoned cars and scrummed down against the contra-flow of rugger spectators to gain access to an annex of the Stade Français.Let's just say, Galliano was smart to field a good team of models to make up for it. They laid on a gamely dizzy performance of typical Galliano-esque high jinks, animating a kind of storyline that was taken from the cult documentaryGrey Gardens. This tale of faded flapperdom and eccentric cat-loving aristocratic decay is one of the most hackneyed fashion references of recent times, but OK. At this stage in his career, Galliano is motoring on reinterpretations of his classics—all the inimitably light-handed things he does with thirties bias cutting, frills, and printed chiffonery—and it happens that this is a season in which that looks right. First, there were twenties baby-star short tiered dresses, picture hats, and flounced jackets. Then a segue into demented Little Edie head-swathed cardigan looks, and a cat-fur-sprouting chubby to make the theme obvious. Otherwise, though, the narrative wasn't a groundbreaker, merely a device for trotting out Galliano¿s standard pretty, printed, flouncy dresses and some softened, sexy versions of the forties suits and day frocks he's been sending out recently at his Dior day job. All extramural irritation apart, it worked as proof that, trend-wise, Galliano is still in the game.
5 October 2007
A headline on the Galliano Gazette—the signature newspaper print the designer uses every season—read, "The Show Must Go On." That phrase might've been there for years, but this season, after the untimely loss of John Galliano's studio head, Steven Robinson, it jumped out with sharp relevance. Even though the collection wasn't presented as a show (unlike its grander cousin, Christian Dior resort, which did an American tour), it was business as usual at the showroom in Paris. The racks were packed with offerings, mostly waist-accented fifties-flavored dresses and soft summer stand-ins for suits with balloon-sleeved, frilled-peplum jackets. Blush-toned bustier dresses caught the spirit of couture's favorite palette, while georgette polka dots, anenome prints, and bias-cut frill and plissé pieces transmitted just enough Galliano flavor to serve as almost dateless wardrobe staples.
9 July 2007
Like a movie, every fashion show is a collaboration, but John Galliano's productions push that notion to the max. (The body paint alone in this show must have taken teams of people to perfect.) The stated theme in theory was a relatively comprehensible—for Galliano—"Road Warriors on Venice Beach." The reality was a pell-mell plunge into just about every variety of modern militarism one could think of. Yes, there were road warriors in a cyberpunk sequence that highlighted neon Mohawks, the aforementioned body paint, and perhaps some underwear. And yes, the Venice Beach ambience was reflected in a general tattoo-and-piercing indulgence on the part of the mannequins. For the rest, it was all about war, from Galliano's name spray-paintedMAS*H–style on the floor of the venue (a church!—a Galliano-perverse venue in which to mark the evil that men do), to the helicopter thrum promising Apocalypse Now as the show opened to mud-caked grunts working the catwalk in silky combats and not much else. Any clothing of substance was worn by arms-dealer look-alikes sporting unlikely satin bondage pants and taffeta coats along with their Arab headdresses and huge stogies, or the Black Panthers who rather extraordinarily patrolled the catwalk in multipocketed nylon military jackets.Galliano's profligate willingness to spin a show out of the most unlikely elements knows no bounds—the model in the stick-on beard might have been Castro or Bin Laden—so anyone with an eye to singling out something as banal as a commercial possibility must edit like a demon: There were Arabic-influenced prints, pieces with wire-stiffened definition, and tricksy camo items that looked promising. Johnny Rotten chanting "World Destruction" on the soundtrack was possibly closer to the real mood of the collection than any specific piece of clothing.
27 June 2007
It's a vintage season for John Galliano—in more ways than one. At Dior, he celebrated the 60th anniversary of the New Look in high movie-star style. Then his own decadently staged collection returned to the romantic, excessive, eccentric hothouse scenes people so adored him for in the early nineties, complete with "vintage" Galliano bias-cut dresses. The notion of entertaining fashion audiences as guests and treating models like individuals has become such a forgotten art that the arrivals at the show—greeted with a cast of made-up Parisian street characters, overflowing dinner tables, potted palms, dogs, chicken coops, Turkish rugs, bordello couches, and an unmade brass bed—were instantly put in party mood. We were in Pigalle during the tens and twenties—the world of Kiki de Montparnasse and Brassai's Madame Bijou.And there were the girls, striking totally convincing attitudes, as if no one could teach them a thing about absinthe drinking or streetwalking. Who knew this supposedly blank generation of Sashas, Lilys, and Cocos had it in them to act up like a bunch of old-school supermodels? That, like the clothes, seemed a flashback to everything that made Galliano good in his first years in Paris. The theme sent him off on an orgy of costume reference (and self-reference) that brought out deep-red Poiret-era coats whorled into asymmetric rose ruffles, gigantic leg-of-mutton-sleeved jackets, high-waisted redingotes, flower-printed tea dresses, and a multiplicity of his signature bias-cut gowns, in everything from black velvet and sheer lace to face-powder pink and dusty-tangerine chiffon.The roll of credits included Stephen Jones' millinery, Pat McGrath's makeup, Julien d'Ys hair, and Michael Howells' set design. All played crucial supporting roles in bringing Galliano gloriously back to full cinematic form. Was there anything new here? Well, yes, in the way the show touched the Poiret sensation of the season; then again, no—but perhaps that was exactly the point. If the early nineties are a reference point in fashion now, here was Galliano, bringing himself back for a new generation—and judging by the way those 20-year-olds got into it, they're ready for every ruffle and cloche the man can throw their way.
2 March 2007
"I'm electrified," John Galliano said after his menswear show, and he did indeed look zapped with energy. No wonder—a few days before, he'd presented aMadame Butterfly–influenced couture collection for Christian Dior that had been acclaimed as one of his best, and here he was offering up an entirely different but equally stunning take on Japanese culture. In a season that has already gazed into the future and found it wanting, Galliano took the ultimate dystopian hero—Mel Gibson's Road Warrior—and gave him a samurai spin.The result was so spectacular as to defy any kind of critical evaluation of its individual components. Yes, there were extraordinary fabric treatments, such as the hand-painting on otherwise relatively restrained tailored items, or the brocading on the sleeves of a suede sweatshirt, or the ruching and distressing of everything else. And yes, there was a play with proportion, which dictated huge over fitted, or short over long. But confronted by fashion tribalism this savage, the only sensible option was to suspend all critical faculties and savor the ride.Fans of metal apocalyptists Slipknot would effortlessly relate to the masking, the distortion, the primal throb of Galliano's collection. For the rest of us, there was an eye-popping trawl through the wreckage of Western civilization. Cormac McCarthy might clap at the parade of cannibal boys in crowns strung together from bits and pieces of trash, or the mannequins transmogrified by exploding skeins of wool and streams of oil. Galliano said he'd been inspired by a cache of Irving Penn photographs of Peruvian tribespeople he discovered in Buenos Aires. The fact that he attached the inspiration specifically to a passage of his otherwise-prosaic underwear shows that there can be a business method behind the showman's madness.
25 January 2007
After his restrained Dior presentation last Tuesday, you might've assumed that John Galliano would take the audience on one of his wild rides for the label that bears his name. It was something of a surprise, then, when the show opened with a section of white suits. With their hook-and-eye closures and hourglass lines, they looked like the sexpot sisters to their Dior counterparts, but they still seemed intended to send a message about the designer's facility with real clothes.From that point on, deciphering Galliano's mindset became increasingly complicated. If Dior's eveningwear was calm, tonight's was pitched toward the garish. Liquid jersey in violet, blue, or fuchsia was spliced from hip to thigh with a cartoon-y flower print. Likewise, hand-painted gold chain-mail skirts descended from satiny asymmetric bodices. Softer and prettier were a series of nude chiffons edged with ruffles in a pale floral.Next came the draped gowns: Splashed with bright sequins or appliquéd with ribbons of gold beads, each one was accessorized by a gargantuan hat. Some of these were fashioned to resemble a leaf or the bow on a birthday present, others to look like a man's fedora. It was hard, finally, to see them as much more than a gimmick.All of this was set to a soundtrack of songs that referenced frustrated desires. Galliano's great talent has been proven again and again, but this season it seemed curiously fettered.
6 October 2006
If only for their hair and makeup, John Galliano's ragtag boy tribes often have an element of the living dead about them, so it wasn't necessarily a shock when he took on Frankenstein for his latest collection. Of course, in the hands of fashion's mad scientist, the effect was less monster than Munster, as increasingly cartoonish looks stalked the catwalk.There were hints of things to come when the gantries that lined the runway sizzled into life with showers of sparks, but scary creatures initially took a backseat to sharply tailored gents in shiny sharkskin suits and python-printed trenches. A purple coat with a chiffon back was a typical Galliano exit-maker. It was followed by an incongruous posse of surf bums en masse, a reminder of Galliano's swimwear range. Then the designer unspooled his final delirious passage of hell-bound Teddy Boys. They started out smart in their frock coats, sequined denims, leopard-print shirts, and brothel creepers, but faster than you could say "Transylvanian twist," they were transformed into rockabilly ghouls, with natty quiffs exploding into ratty beehive hairdos.By show's end, young Canadian catwalk star Owen Steuart wasn't wearing much more than the ruins of a pair of leopard 'n' denim cutoffs. Of course, it's part of Galliano's genius that there is someone somewhere who will crave this very item. And even if the overall effect was a little tooRocky Horrorfor most of us, it was nevertheless the kind of mad treat that the fashion press needed at this stage in the biannual trans-Europe trek.
2 July 2006
To get to John Galliano's fall show, guests had to drag themselves to a bleak industrial studio on the outskirts of Paris on a freezing and traffic-clogged Saturday night. But if anyone was expecting one of the designer's extravagant fashion performances as compensation for the trek, it didn't materialize. Instead, Galliano offered what was, for him, a minor-key piece about a tattered army of Confederates.The show opened, rather confusingly, with some long black bulky coats that looked like near counterparts to the ones he had shown earlier in the week at Dior, though a touch rougher and more rustic in the execution. As it went on, the differences emerged more, as frayed fragments of the American flag got patched into skirts and jackets, and plaid work-shirting appeared shaded into the tips of garments. More than the clothes, it was the music—stirring country-music ballads of war and personal loss sung by Emmylou Harris, Joan Baez, and Dolly Parton—that transmitted the feeling that Galliano was fingering: aspects of patriotism and working-class American roots, as well as hints of its current psychological state. It added a timely footnote to the march of militarism that has risen elsewhere this season, and there was a certain poignance to his faded and homespun paisely patchwork-printed prairie dresses and makeshift coats and hats apparently hewn out of Victorian rugs. But though they fit nicely enough into his narrative, they lacked some of the creative intensity that Galliano usually brings. Unlike his wilder outings, this didn't feel like a collection in which he had taken on a personal battle to push fashion forward.
3 March 2006
Dissecting a John Galliano show is like plunging into the tornado that scoots Dorothy off to Oz. There is so much stuff coming at you that it's hard to draw breath—like old Dot, you surrender.The heart of Galliano's latest collection had something to do with the boy tribes of London. When the show kicked off in a roar of noise and a whoosh of steam, it was a collision ofOliver TwistandA Clockwork Orange. A Fagin stand-in was given a striking coat, wool above the waist, sheer below, with an elegant tracery of white stitching at the shoulder (such fabric mixes were a recurrent motif). His gang of thieves, meanwhile, stomped past in chunky heeled boots and voluminous coats, sprayed to look dusty (industrial treatments were another fabric feature).Urchins evolved into punks in pink bondage trousers and graphic T-shirts advertising "the cowhand's favourite." (Printed with a nude torso, they recalled vintage Westwood.) Baggy combats and puckered, knotted knitwear evoked Gorillaz' teenage wasteland. Headgear recalled Fritz Lang's equally dystopianMetropolis(Kraftwerk intoningThe Robotson the soundtrack). Galliano's signature self-aggrandizement featured in a leather jacket printed with his crowned head and a graphic that proclaimed him "Lone Wolf." Ever the canny businessman, he inserted a healthy plug for his underwear line. A chiffon frock coat printed with an illustration by eighteenth-century artist James Gillray and worn over green-striped breeches restored the fantasy with a shot of divine decadence.
26 January 2006
If there's one thing you can rely on John Galliano to provide, it's entertainment—though not necessarily the kind where the audience is meant to be scribbling down style numbers or sketching dresses. This season, his roll-up, roll-up fashion sideshow had a moral: Everybody's beautiful; live and let live; respect one another—that sort of thing. Against a schlocky 1920's Art Deco theater set, he sent out a parade of proud couples—grande dames and gigolos, blondes and sugar daddies, fat ladies and admiring lovers, lipstick lesbians, bearded transvestites, and midget fiancés—about to be wed.It's a long time since the fashion world has been reminded that humanity contains more variety than the standard race of 5-foot-10 skinnies who populate the runways. And Galliano's alternative cast, coiffed and made up in a style that suggested cabaret performers and their patrons, played their parts with a celebratory sense of enjoyment. Sure enough, the contagious atmosphere sent a rare outbreak of smiles through the show-fatigued audience.Those who were also scrutinizing the presentation for a Galliano fashion update among the costumes came away with slim pickings, however. There were a couple of sinuous, vaguely twenties, Spanish hot-pink chiffon dresses, some champagne satin corseted gowns swathed in green tulle, the odd net-veiled jacket, and a bit of jeanswear going on. But beyond that, precious few clues about what this collection will look like once it reaches stores. Still, that's the way Galliano likes to project his house image these days: frolics on the runway, frocks back at the shop.
7 October 2005
As the audience trooped into John Galliano's gritty urban set complete with burned-out car,Mr. Bojangleswas looping on the soundtrack. In fact, that grizzled old soul was the inspiration for a show that celebrated street musicians, from the jazzbos of Bourbon Street in New Orleans to the drum-beating Hare Krishnas who never tire of trolling London's Oxford Street.Galliano's genius lies in his ability to transform the most arcane sources into irresistible fashion delirium, and his spring 2006 collection was no exception. It was a back-to-front affair, starting with funereal evening wear and ending with one of the designer's Leigh Bowery–influenced pagan lovefests, featuring pit stops in Peru, Appalachia (hobo chic is another Galliano signature), and a Formula One racetrack.Highlights? There was some ingenious play with silk scarves, which showed up as the lapels on a pinstripe jacket and as a trompe l'oeil shirt under a leather waistcoat. A Shaker quilt applied to a denim jacket had a why-didn't-I-think-of-that logic, and Galliano's patchwork jeans reached new heights of sequined, embroidered overload (though the denim jumpsuit with its weight of logo patches might be an ironic wink too far). A three-piece pinstripe suit nodded toward accessibility but was upstaged by a brown leather hobo coat. The spectacle concluded with a rain of petals, through which Galliano's cast took one final turn before the Pied Piper himself clambered out of that abandoned car and took his bow.
5 July 2005
The exquisitely lacquered Dita Von Teese, wearing John Galliano's twenties camisole slipdress of beaded nude satin, blithely declared that she had been carried across the snow to protect her swan's down mules so that she could take her place in the front row. She was the perfect almost real-life embodiment of the otherworldly silver-screen sirens whom the designer evoked in his fall show.Martin Scorsese'sThe Aviator, with its playfully sophisticated costumes by Oscar-winning Sandy Powell, is fast proving the fashion world's inspirational movie of the season. This lavishly told tale of glamour, obsession, and megalomania was channeled by Galliano's Hollywood back-lot set—complete with arc lights, shadowy scene shifters, and canvas director's chairs (their backs stamped "JOHN GALLIANO STUDIO") drawn up to stars' well-lit makeup tables.Galliano's collection reprised many of his own Oscar-worthy hits, and added some new obsessions—like the Warholian screen prints of over-made-up eyes that fluttered on the back of gleaming white blazers and cabans. With their finger-waved hair, bee-stung glossy black Clara Bow lips, and arched brows, the girls evoked a celebrated ad campaign shot by Javier Vallhonrat in the designer's wildly inventive late-eighties London days. And their clothes brought back further glory moments in his career. Slouchy blazers and wide-leg pants, complete with suede golfing shoes, suggested Dietrich's mannish off-duty wardrobe, now worn with a modern hip-hop attitude. Galliano rang the changes on his signature thirties-inspired bias-cut dresses via appliqués of drifts of butterflies or prints of overscale, Warhol-look carnations; his pretty twenties debutante dresses, meanwhile, were updated with powder-pink marabou or Wiener Werkstätte-inspired trim. Even more playfully self-referential was a giant parka in chinoiserie-embroidered poison-green satin—an obvious allusion to Nicole Kidman's defining 1997 Dior Academy Awards dress, its hood edged in the pale mink that trimmed the hem of that gown.This greatest-hits collection, while not leading us into a brave new fashion world, at least confirmed the myriad reasons that make Galliano great—not least the preternatural sense of self that saw him take his bow amid a lavishly choreographed explosion of flaming tapers and the whoosh of a wind machine.Vive le roi!
4 March 2005
"Napoleon for the cut, Kurt Cobain for the fabric mix, John Galliano for the way you should put it all together." Thus spake the man himself as he posed in front of a huge Mondino photograph of himself in best piratical-urchin rig.He could just as well have added Freddy Krueger (those tatty striped mohairs!) and Sherpa Tensing, the first man up Everest, to his list of guiding lights, but then a Galliano collection is dizzying enough in its farrago of color, texture, pattern, and shape that you can read almost anything into its fevered whirl. So voluminous suits in black and gold sequins evoked both Elvis and a hip-hop yeti, as the models lumbered by in massive ski boots. The Napoleonic coat was the defining item of the collection: whether in mohair, quilted tiger print, or white nylon, it exemplified Galliano's commitment to "cut with romance, with soul." A middle passage that saluted the pursuits of the English landed gentry with a red riding jacket, black frock coat, and jockey silks wasn't as successful (though the white trousers with the built-in cricket pads would make an ideal all-in-one on the playing fields of Eton), perhaps because there was less room for the grand gesture in such uptight clothing.Much more in tune with the designer's wayward spirit was a sequence of Tibetan warriors in those huge coats, including one wild shearling tattooed with flowers and incongruously worn with a Montezuma-style headdress. Aztec or Mongol, it's all just grist for Galliano's promiscuously creative mill.
27 January 2005
What was John Galliano thinking about as he conjured up his spring 2005 collection? Here's what: Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton, one of the most iconic society figures of twentieth century America, meets Sienna Miller, It girl Brit actress starring in the twenty-first century remake of sixties filmAlfie. Where? At England's legendary Glastonbury Festival. What did they do? Rocked out, into the wee hours, to a soundtrack of "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," "Good Vibrations," and "Smells Like Teen Spirit."All over the place? Yes, but this is Galliano's modus operandi: to layer disparate reference upon disparate reference, then top off the lot with some very playful, inventive accessories. The strategy stretches right back to his time in London in the eighties, where strips of twig, smashed eyeglasses, and even some fish all turned up—memorably—on the runway. This time round, Galliano must have hit Toys "R" Us for the kids' balloons that trailed behind the models and the inflatable plastic pool toys that were worn as hats. Yet there were more "serious" accessories here, too: Bollywood-worthy fake-flower cuffs and necklaces; slouchy sequin knit hats, the likes of which you'd never have seen on any Seattle grungester in the nineties; and fur used for thong-tied flat boots—an unexpected, and highly effective, counterpoint to the more extravagantly glamorous evening looks.What to wear to this strange, fabulous party? How about the Schiaparelli-esque gold lamé fitted jacket, with enormous folds of fabric dramatically draped onto the shoulder, or a gem-studded, tiny-waisted ombré chiffon ball dress (the Hutton influence)? Perhaps you'd prefer a shiny, swirling, hallucinogenic floral coat, or a lime-green ruffled dress with a psychedelic cartoon-print scarf trailing off the shoulders (for a Miller moment).Either way, with all this going on, there's no need for Galliano's usual heavy, theatrical makeup. Just let your face go naked, let down your hair, and… party!
8 October 2004
At the end of John Galliano's huge show, a clap of thunder announced the designer, posed in a blaze of fiery red light like Mephistopheles himself. Apt, given that he'd just treated his audience to a hellishly good time. His spectacle had a cinematic sweep and was cast with the bad boys who have become his fashion obsessions: buccaneers, gigolos, gypsies, toreadors, and boxers. It was easy to dissect their garb and extract the "sensible" core that will eventually stock store racks: the jersey hoodie, the maroon bomber with brown leather sleeves, the double-breasted gray pinstripe with the contrast lapels. (Even, at a pinch, the cropped, padded, ruched gridiron pants.) But that's missing the point. A Galliano presentation is about total surrender to his consummate showmanship, and this was no exception. From sooty-faced chimney sweeps through Civil War lover boys to scary dreadlocked voodoo priests, it was a Disney joyride turned dark and deliciously decadent.
1 July 2004
John Galliano cited "romantic, poetic seafarers of the Yemeni tribe" as the basis of his fall collection. Quite what they were doing tangled up with giganticCold Mountaincrinolines and corsets exploding with ruffles we needn't question too closely; all this means is that we're off on another colorful trip into Galliano's psychedelic, ethnographic imagination.The pileup of fun and spectacle started with the towering constructs on the girls' heads. Little bowlers teetered on top of arrangements that supported, variously, floral head scarves, huge coiled fake-hair plaits, fox tails, silver jewelery, and whole canteens of miniature pots and pans. Allthatmirrored what was going on in the clothes—an insane collision of piratical stripes, vivid gypsy florals, Galliano's signature newsprint chiffons, and knitted patchworks, accessorized with dangling Coke cans and empty plastic mineral-water bottles.Galliano¿s shows make a mockery of solemn fashion reporting. He knows, and we know, that no one would ever wear a 12-foot-wide crinoline over a baggy pair of printed drawers with, perhaps, a pair of plastic carrier bags on the feet. He's not even suggesting it. Perhaps what he's saying with this crazy scavenger look is that most canny shoppers simply pick over current fashion to appropriate what they want to add to a lifetime's collection of personal treasures. He is not one to laboriously dictate what goes with what.At any rate, this time, the visual mayhem didn't conceal the garments that will translate directly from runway to hanger. Tiny, form-fitting jackets were the news, some in rose-embroidered chamois leather, others cut as bugle-boy military spencers or as eighteenth-century corsets in shearling. Great knits were also nonchalantly thrown in—a cream cardigan with fluffy pom-poms here, a raspberry-striped long-sleeve polo shirt there. All that seemed missing from Galliano¿s regular menu were his fragile evening dresses, one of the foundations on which he has built his name.One thing is certain: For all the provocation Galliano likes his presentations to stir up, the real surprise is how scrumptiously pretty it ends up looking in the store.
5 March 2004
Victorian dolls and Brooke Shields inPretty Baby: Those were the not-so-innocent fancies that caused John Galliano to get into cream puffs and frills for summer. His first model teetered out in a bustled-up romper confection with overblown transparent sleeves, white stockings and suspenders, and a two-foot pompadour. Her girlie cohorts followed, gussied up in itsy eyelet tutus, marabou-trimmed rosebud-print corsetry, fluttery panties, white knee socks, and all manner of coquettish bows, rosettes, and ribbons.After the puff sleeves and baby dolls, Galliano sent out some of his more familiar nineteenth-century bordello denizens in fuchsia corsetry and longMoulin Rougecutaway flounces. Backstage, the designer insisted that his bubbly summer follies are there simply to explore a new proportion. “It's something I had to do to get to the next phase,” he explained, “like the cardboard cutout show I did a few seasons ago.” Meanwhile, Galliano analysts know to search for those tantalizing signs of the delicacies he reserves for commercial release—like a fragile white lace blouse, or a lilac camisole suspended loosely from bow-trimmed ribbons. And as for the teensy colored purses, swinging from grosgrain straps? Immediately, deliciously consumable.
10 October 2003
John Galliano put on the liveliest, most upbeat show of the season tonight at the Theatre de l'Empire on avenue Wagram. As a jazzed-up version of “Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy” blasted and neon showgirl lights flashed, the models tripped haughtily down the runway in twisted, bustled, blown-up ’40s suits, rainbow-bright crocodile platform shoes with diamond buckles, Joan Crawford–inspired evening dresses and giant glued-on triangular plastic eyebrows to match.It was a collection that could only have come from the imagination of Galliano, a man who's channeled everything from Bollywood to kabuki and made all of it completely his own. This season he said he was going for a "granny from hell" look, focusing on real urban glamour and honest-to-goodness dressing up.The show opened with a series of slim-skirted suits that were anything but classic. The palette of choice, inspired by the supersaturated tones of Crawford-era films, was totally Technicolor: apple green, peridot, cyclamen, lipstick red. Exaggerated hourglass shapes with huge bow bustles made waists look tiny, while shoulders were enormously puffed and asymmetrical, occasionally exploding into poufs of fruit-printed silk. All this was followed by pinup-girl lingerie—merry widows, garter belts, thigh-high silk stockings and sexy little tap pants—far too chic to be relegated to the bedroom.For day, Galliano showed pom-pom-trimmed powder-pink sweaters that fell almost to the knee and printed silk dresses accessorized with giant rhinestone pins—one, in an overblown poppy print, looked particularly fresh. Evening looks, meanwhile, included highly Oscar-worthy gowns with all manner of ruffles and bustles and bows. (Nicole Kidman would be well advised to choose the dramatically draped peony silk.)The Fall 2003 collection will be the first to fill what Galliano calls his "dream boutique"—his first flagship store in Paris, where he plans to host dinner parties in the shop windows. His excitement at the prospect was evident in the clothes, and the energy was contagious. As the audience filed out of the theater, even the most jaded members of the fashion flock were smiling.
8 March 2003
When a model with a blue-painted face, wearing a giant tinsel hood, a vast exploding bubble of ruffles, green Lurex leggings and six-inch glitter platforms opens a show, we sense we are not exactly in for the average run-through of clothes to buy for summer. What John Galliano did instead was to lay on an outrageous piece of performance art, a spectacle that flew exuberantly in the face of fashion's normal purpose.As inspiration for his latest piece of theater, the designer cited, among other things, Leigh Bowery, icon of early '80s London club culture. Galliano's 2003 homage to that era, in which competitive dressing was taken to ever more bizarre heights of do-it-yourself costume, took the form of enormously puffed-up shapes supported on hoops and covered in flounces; massive military jackets; swathes of sari fabric; and Indian-inspired makeup and jewelry.Though someone searching for something to wear among this lot might have a hard time, Galliano is nothing if not sensitized to the current mood in fashion. The general message the collection conveyed was about the enjoyment of color, which has emerged as a major trend for spring. For his finale, he sent out girls whose voluminous outfits were covered in colored powders used in Indian festivals. As the models twirled, the audience was showered—and, incredibly, responded with laughter. As Galliano said, "It's about time for a bit of joie de vivre, isn't it?"
5 October 2002
It would take more words than are in this entire review to fully describe any single outfit in John Galliano's thundering, swirling, multi-everything Fall collection. "Eskimo and Mongolian hotties! Keep the fur flying!" was the backstage prompt to Galliano's tribe as they marauded out to flaunt patchworked and rose-embroidered shearlings, extra-flouncy skirts, chiffons, bobbly striped knits and a whole load more in the delighted faces of an audience that included Lenny Kravitz and Kate Moss.Galliano likes to tease commentators by keeping a couple of leagues ahead of their ability to document his continent-hopping inspiration, basic-to-deluxe materials and bewildering repertoire of techniques. Suffice it to say that this show included Chinese brocade and dragon-head motifs, Spanish fringe, Scottish tartan, Peruvian pom-poms, American-Indian moccasins, lace-printed denim, salmon skin, satin embroidery, rough-hewn fur, and feathers.Galliano is amongst the small band of designers who stand up for the value of individuality in a season when color, workmanship and the confidence of singular points of view have been all too frequently stifled by commercial pressure. The irony, of course, is that single pieces from this collection will look far more seductive on a store rack than any number of black cashmere turtlenecks.
9 March 2002
Once again, John Galliano staged an extravagant ethnic mishmash.An imposing checkered snakeskin zoot suit paved the way for Mexican-beaded shirts and suits, wide denim ensembles embroidered with cars, and a great knitted Andean coat. Galliano also showed some beautiful quieter pieces that were sometimes eclipsed by the flashier outfits: Standouts included a piped pale-blue blazer, side-ruched trousers and pretty tea dresses. (These could have done without their bungee-cord multiloop belts.)Galliano is a fantastic storyteller who can meld diverse influences like few others. The insistence with which he drives this point home, however, is making it virtually impossible to distinguish his work at Dior from that of his signature line.
10 October 2001
John Galliano is certainly in great form this season, and we're not talking about his newly buff physique. After his triumphant Dior tour de force, Galliano showed an inventive, sophisticated and—dare we say it?—wearable collection for his signature label.It all started with sporty elastic-waist plaid tracksuits and billowing blousons, superwide denim trousers, cargo pants and a sensational cropped, hooded puffy jacket. Things quickly moved along with warrior-princess dresses, massive army-green skirts with red detailing and ecru coats with floral cutout patterns. Galliano then allowed himself a series of precious soft-chiffon dresses with old English floral prints that called for a perfect cup of tea—and for fabulous flat boots that could've been made with the skin of a prehistoric reptile.This season, Galliano has channeled his considerable creative energies into focused clothes that don't just stand out from the pack—they also work in the real world.
14 March 2001
Just when you thought no one could pull the fashion crowd’s leg, along comes John Galliano to stir up a storm. His presentation took place in the same venue as Dior, andCDlogos shone bright as puzzled editors took their places. The lights dimmed, and the same aggressive and raunchy soundtrack from Dior introduced…several of the exact same Dior looks. As the music appropriately segued to Britney Spears’ “Oops!…I did It Again,” Galliano’s signature collection followed—not that it was much different from the one he showed two days ago for Dior.Like a child playing in an insane asylum turned atelier, Galliano sent out girls in reconfigured, violated dresses with cartoony oversize zippers and giant snaps; his controversial ladies sans domicile fixe were also there, as well as new belles with massive feathered hats and tattered umbrellas. Dior’s beauty queens in bathing suits were replaced by their punk cousins, with slogans like “We live a class war” and “I wanna see some men” stamped on a derrière or two.Some might say that Galliano’s prank collection was a bit too much—but, one could argue, it was too much of a good thing.
11 October 2000
"Welcome to our Playground." This time at Chez Galliano, those telling models' cue-cards were scripted in bright crayola colors and stuck with children's sweeties.Yes, Galliano decided it was time for some serious dress-up, but after his flashy Dior show earlier in the week, he wasn't thinking of entrance-making Oscar gowns. Instead, he chose to further infantalize his models (many of whom have yet to break into their twenties), by casting them as little girls let loose with their mom's clothes—and maybe their pop's and sports-mad brother's too.With all the pressure on him to continually invent the fashion wheel, and please the big guns at LVMH, Galliano apparently decided to regress to a cozier time. To a soundtrack that included the themes from '60s British kids' TV shows, Galliano's girls (and one or two experimental little boys too), clomped down the runway in mom's far-too-big shoes (perversely made with inner pockets to ensure that they actually did fit), their faces and sometimes clothes smeared with primary paint colors. A brother's huge soccer shirt (team Galliano); dad's giant cardigan; mom's mad '70s wallpaper print frock; her prom dress (stepped into the wrong way, twisting the bodice all to the front), were all assembled with a child's delightfully untrained eye.Some tattered but classic Galliano treasures could be salvaged from the dress-up box, but this was less a fashion show than an indulgent but enchanted Alice-in-Wonderland adventure into the comfort zone of barely remembered childhood.
1 March 2000
Another wild tour de force for Galliano—this time, a musical rundown of the century, with plenty of unexpected twists and turns, of course. Dandyish zoot suits—Mafioso style—were shown with spacelike silver overcoats, hats, and bags. Fifties crinolines followed: Galliano's take on romance and innocence, and the beginning of rock. Gingham prints, floral appliqués and extravagant pink volumes alternated with punk and hip-hop inspired getups: combat boots, bondage straps (albeit covered in paillettes) and slashed dresses. Galliano's main virtue is his whimsical ability to retrace and appropriate different periods of fashion history. It wasn't always easy to grasp all the references, but the extravagant and accomplished creations left the audience reeling in their seats.
6 October 1999
Voguedescribed this collection as “a spoof on ancient Egypt as seen through the eyes of Hollywood,” and its look as “CleopatrameetsSid and Nancy, complete with trompe l’oeil tattoos and a jewel-of-the-Nile dress made entirely out of safety pins.” Understated the collection was not. While some critics were beginning to tire of Galliano’s histrionics—“By now he has established that at each season he will marry two improbable themes,” asserted critic Amy M. Spindler—Vogueremained supportive. “Outlandish! Unreal! Why make clothes no one can wear?” the magazine asked, answering: “Because the best ideas are born from extremes.”
14 March 1997
Wonderous bias-cut gowns were de rigueur atJohn Gallianoshows; Spring 1996, which took ballet as its theme, was no exception. With their cone-breasted mini tutus, “ballerinas”Kate Mossand Shalom Harlow had more than a touch of the burlesque about them—think Degas meets The Crazy Horse. Adding variety, reportedThe New York Times, was a “missionary” group, which walked “to choir music and a sermon being preached.”
16 October 1995
It was a season after his watershed São Schlumberger show, and the question on everyone’s lips—Madonna’s included, at least until she left in a huff when the show was nearly two hours late—was: CouldJohn Gallianodo it again? Indeed he could, and he did. In an early hint at the astounding sets he’d later create atChristian Dior, he turned out Paris’s Pin-Up Studios with vintage cars, lingerie-strewn clotheslines, and a corrugated metal wall pasted with pornography. The clothes, which ran the gamut from retro-tailored skirtsuits to his signature bias-cut slip dresses, weren’t short on flourishes, either.Linda Evangelista’syellow tulle confection was a real traffic-stopper—she could barely squeeze between the late-fifties-model Oldsmobile parked on the catwalk and the front row.
5 November 1994
John Gallianowas out of cash and sleeping on the floor at a friend’s flat in early 1994. But if he was down, he wasn’t out. With new backers, a cadre of generous friends (hatmaker Stephen Jones, muse Amanda Harlech), and a fairy godmother in the form of the Paris hostess São Schlumberger, who lent him her Left Bank hôtel particulier, he pulled together a career-making collection that fused the East and West of Japanese kimonos and glamorous 1940s-style tailoring. A year later, Galliano landed a job atGivenchy,becoming the first British designer to run a French couture house.
1 March 1994
“It is fun to see imaginative clothes even when they’re on the wacko side,” wrote Bernadine Morris afterJohn Galliano’s show, which started two hours late, at 11:00 p.m., in Paris’s Salle Wagram. The models were outfitted, reportedVogue, “as shipwrecked marauders in worn frock coats, as fainting consumptives in bias-cut chiffon, and as down-on-their-luck aristocrats in extravagantly puff-sleeved gowns.” The article continued: “The models love all this stuff and they act like crazy for him. . . . They swaggered so . . . they didn’t notice when their tits were hanging out. They took off their shoes when they felt like it, feigned malaria when called for, asked, ‘Did I bat my eyelashes enough?’ when they played the down-and-out girls still trying to keep up appearances with their fans and pearls.”
14 October 1992