After fifteen years at Christian Dior, John Galliano was fired for inveterate alcoholism and being rather racist this spring. While Galliano fights a court case, Dior has dragged its feet in replacing him. So the brand went ahead with a couture show in Paris yesterday without a new designer. The pieces in the collection ranged from brightly colored to very sparkly to extremely ruffled, with no apparent theme. Something about “roses” was mentioned. (Galliano did a rather spectacular couture collection based on flowers one year ago.) And something about “modern architecture.” (I really can see the influence of Saarinen in that twirly-candystripe skirt…not.) It was, in short, a mess. And the critics hated it.
Bill Gaytten, a longtime studio assistant of Galliano who specializes in pattern-cutting, might have been expected to offer up a placeholder collection: something boring, in a sumptuous way, with the kind of tried-and-true historicism (why not pillage the ’50s? Everyone loves the ’50s! The ’50s are the safest of choices!) that would generate the kind of brand buzz that sells Dior lipsticks and perfumes at duty free counters in airports the world over. Instead, we got…psychedelic clown couture. And cubic hats. Props for ambition?
The Times critic Cathy Horyn opined, “All sorts of weird vibes, along with a lack of design leadership, have a way of surfacing in clothes. A runway is like a shrink’s couch; stuff just comes out.”