Galliano

More Dior Than Dior: Galliano Counters The Recession With Ruffles

Filed under: Apparel

I thought Armani Prive's Paris show was extravagant but that was before I beheld the flounces, ruffles and crinolines of John Galliano's latest collection for Dior. The eccentric designer took his fashion cue from the paintings of Vermeer and other Dutch masters offering up a collection that included bib-like lace collars, puffy sleeves you could hide a small dog in and cinched-in waistlines set against belled out skirts.The spring-summer collection was meant to be "More Dior than Dior" taking Christian Dior's original neat suits from the 1940s and riffing on them as only Galliano can.

The collection flies so completely in the face of what the IHT's Suzy Menkes calls "austerity chic" that it's hard not to be charmed. As she puts it " in straitened circumstances, was it mad? Yes, but it was magic." While elaborate couture shows are becoming more of a rarity, this collection and the one from Armani show the type of flamboyant showmanship that may not be in step with the times but is still a wonder to behold.

Gallery: More Dior Than Dior

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Tags: dior, fashion, galliano, john galliano, JohnGalliano, paris

John Galliano's Debut Fragrance

by Lisa Palladino (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Cosmetics and Fragrance

British designer John Galliano is introducing his debut scent some 20 years after launching his fashion brand. "We had about 360 tests -- more than for a couture collection," he noted in Women's Wear Daily.

Galliano was involved with every step of the scent's development. Its outer box is designed to look like a collage or a book, reminiscent of travel tomes he makes following fact-finding voyages undertaken before creating fashion collections. The bottle's neck was inspired by collars appearing in Galliano's first fashion collection, Les Incroyables, and the flacon is topped with a Gothic G. Model Guinevere Van Seenus is the face on the box.

Galliano, who also is the couturier at Christian Dior, had thoughts of flowers, particularly of rose, peony, iris with its powdery side, and violet. The scent will be launched at the end of September in the U.K., through an exclusive with Harrods, and in Germany. On October 11, it is to be introduced in France, exclusively at Sephora, and then a few days later in Switzerland. The launch in the rest of the world will take place in 2009.

Prices vary: 90-ml. eau de parfum spray, 100 euros, or $158; 60-ml. edp spray, 80 euros, or $126; 40-ml. edp spray, 60 euros, or $95; 200-ml. body milk for 38 euros, or $60; and a 200-ml. shower gel, 33 euros, or $52, will be available at launch. A 150-ml. body scrub, 39 euros, or $62, will come out after the initial fragrance introduction.

Tags: designer perfume, DesignerPerfume, fragrance, Galliano, John Galliano, JohnGalliano, perfume, scent, scents