Christian Dior Haute Couture F/W 2007.08 Versailles

[cavanaugh]

its all very pretty, but im not very impressed.

 

[Gypsy_Doll]

Yummy! Gorgeous gowns...Horrible make-up. Glad to see Naomi still holding it down in her prime.

 

[mikel]

Great to see Karen Mulder on the catwalk again!

 

[susanna]

^ Rembrandt, maybe?

I thought of Rembrandt when I saw Bruna's brown potato sack-like outfit

 

[dior_couture1245]

You know, this collection could have been edited of a few dresses and it would have been the most perfect show ever....some of the dresses were very Miss America and too poofy and puff pastry looking. If John had edited out these dresses, the collection would have been the collection of the year-

(this would have been nice without the flowers)

(I hate everything about this blue dress on Kinga...her wig is terrible, the color is frumpy, and the mask in her hair is TACKY)

(weird shape and ugly embroidery)

(cheap looking embroidery, garish color and Kim looks terrible with that hair and make up)

(skirt is SO strange)

style.com

If these outfits weren't in the show, it'd easily be one of my top favorite Dior shows...

 

[xPedro]

i kind of like Morgane's outfit

 

[Miss Galliano]

these dresses remind me of some old haute couture shows for Dior, i find it original.. i mean the colour and not the shapes maybe it is the underneath like the egyptians, spaces amazones,collection

 

[jjbunny79]

i love lily cole and naomi campbell's outfit

 

[mnbvcxz]

the music to this show is funny....

 

[DolceLorenzo]

Gisele was absolutely awful in this show. All her poses looked so put on and like she was really trying hard to look classy and elegant.

I agree. I was very disappointed since she is such a great model.

 

[Ksanochka Vanmra]

^Yes, I agree. She annoyed me with all her poses.

The collection is beautiful, but some dresses were a bit too much and, although there were very beautiful and incredible pieces, the whole thing didn't convince me. And I wasn't impressed at all, which is strange, because Galliano always impresses me.

 

[eugenius]

Anybody post the YouTube clips?

 

[dior_couture1245]

The collection is beautiful, but some dresses were a bit too much and, although there were very beautiful and incredible pieces, the whole thing didn't convince me. And I wasn't impressed at all, which is strange, because Galliano always impresses me.

I have a very similar feeling, which is really saddening to me, because this could have been the most amazing show EVER, given the location, the theme, just the whole atmosphere of the event. I don't really want to say it was the excitement that let me down, because I feel as though it did...I don't know.

The first outfits were SO amazing, Gisele's, Raquel's, Mariacarla's, Helena's, ESPECIALLY Magdalena's (one of my favorite dresses EVER), Olga's (of course), Mariya's was so PERFECT, Michaela's, Irina's...those first 9 outfits were enought to make me happy forever! But the pastel poof stuff that came our near the end was disappointing.


On another note, I'm curious as to how Galliano will transfer this theme to RTW...I doubt he'll take the theme ARTISTS, too big, I'm assuming he'll take one artist and make that a collection. I hope he takes the more art deco artists he used, like Cocteau, and transfers that to RTW....

 

[Brighid]

The show was really big event, and the collection is beautiful, but there were few things which i don't like - for example Naomi's dress, Linda's look, Gisele (she wasn't elegant...) etc.

 

[Yanka]

This show TOTALLY wowved me! This is what couture should be!

 

[Mr-Dale]

Together with the Spanish section I have another fave section. The section reminded me so much of a painting I once saw in Cologne by Marie Bracquemond, a 19th century impressionist. As I googled, it seems she might indeed've been a real inspiration.

Here is the specific painting, On The Terrace (Sur La Terrasse) When I saw this painting, I sat in front of it and looked at it for 45 minutes. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

And one dress that basically looks like it walked out of this painting:

Sorry for the size of this one, but the resemblance is uncanny:

The influence is so much in the colours, volumes and texture/fabric treatment

style
http://www.dl.ket.org/webmuseum/wm/paint/auth/bracquemond/index.htm
http://www.mcs.csuhayward.edu/~malek/Perduto/Bracquemond.html
http://comunidad-escolar.pntic.mec.es/689/culagen.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00160/l_mariebracquemond.html

 

[ilaughead]

Wow! Good eye, Mr Dale! Spot on!

 

[Ceptuouse]

just saw this photo from the afterparty, wow!

[style]

 

[masquerade]

There is an article in the LA Times today about the couture shows that mentions the art influences in Dior HC. It's nothing we didn't know already, but still worth a post

THE AGE OF DECADENCE
At the fall couture collections, there was no such thing as over the top.
By Booth Moore, Times Staff Writer
July 15, 2007

Paris — PERHAPS the extreme opulence in Paris last week speaks to a world that now has 8.7 million millionaires, for whom a $100,000 made-to-order couture gown is a nice little trifle.

Whatever the reason, the city was dripping with money and fashion spectacle from the Palais de Tokyo to the suburb of Versailles.

You could see it at Dior's blowout at the Orangerie, where 1,000 guests, carbon emissions be damned, had traveled in chauffeured cars to the festivities at Versailles. Jean Paul Gaultier did an about-face from his monastic vision for spring to a full-out princes' and maharajahs' fantasy, with one model as a czar prince with two foxes dangling from her jet-beaded shoulder straps. Even Giorgio Armani, typically the master of tasteful greige, went on a garish tear, showing the kind of clothes that recall the last era of conspicuous consumption, the 1980s, or perhaps signal the beginning of a new one — in India, Russia and China. That fuchsia crocodile jacket fastened with a jeweled corset belt over a flared skirt? Totally Alexis Carrington.

At Dior, no expense was spared. Forty-five of the world's top models were flown in: Naomi, Shalom, Gisele, the whole zero-percent body-fat club. The after-party, held in the gardens, where Bedouin tents were hung with crystal chandeliers, featured roving musicians, chefs serving paella out of Jacuzzi-size skillets and a projection of the fashion show from earlier in the evening onto the spray of a fountain.

Marie Antoinette would have approved.

So often, John Galliano is influenced by sculptural origami folding or raucous street fashion. But this season he played the romantic, drawing on French painters and photographers, Spanish bullfighters and Dior's famous nip-waisted, full-skirted 1947 New Look. The first time around, the New Look spawned post-World War II street protests against the designer's conspicuous use of fabric. Now, 25 meters of silk is a God-given right.

The show began in black and white with a Jean Cocteau pen-and-ink portrait on the bodice of a ball gown, and a white bustier dress swirled into a hand-painted pink rose at the waist. What followed was a color explosion, each look more delightful than the last — a pink trompe l'oeil column dress outlined in brushstrokes, Picasso's harlequin suit done in soft pastels, a fiery crimson dress embroidered in gold like matador's costume.

It was over the top, certainly, but not too much so, a true marriage of Galliano's sense of theater and the house's ladylike elegance.

Not to be outdone, Karl Lagerfeld took over the nearby Parc de Saint-Cloud, where not even the driving rain could keep away the private cars full of Chanel-clad lovelies. They were greeted by handsome attendants brandishing black Chanel logo umbrellas and escorted down the soggy garden path.

On the runway, there was a renewed focus on embellishment, a departure for Lagerfeld from the monastic, unadorned jackets and distressed denim leggings of last fall's couture. He returned to the classic Chanel suit, which looked very 1980s covered in silver sparkles, with squared-off shoulders and a slim skirt. The "Thriller" decade was brought to mind again when a chemise dress appeared with overgrown gold studs running down the sides.

But there was lightness too — a short-sleeve, pastel blue ball gown with a white underskirt and a bodice traced in crystals was the kind of demure thing you could imagine a girl wearing to her coming-out ball, wherever in the world they still have coming-out balls; while the pleated cream chiffon sleeves on a silver cocktail shift looked like angel's wings.

Feathers appear to be the new fur. Everywhere, there was plumage on cuffs and collars, headpieces, even the sides of sunglasses.

At Christian Lacroix, feathers wove themselves into a sumptuous Orientalist theme with loose manteaus, kimono jackets and watteau-back coats in flocked velvets and birds of paradise brocades. The bolero was here, too, in studded satin with ostrich feather balloon sleeves, or simple black crepe topping a cream chiffon skirt with rows of silver embroidery tracing the pleats. Kohl-rimmed eyes, court shoes dangling jewels and toppling wigs completed the decadent picture.

Jean-Paul Gaultier's collection was also steeped in exoticism, stirring up romantic notions of empire with embroidered officer's jackets and riding pants, colorful brocade coats and jeweled turbans. (That's right, they're not going anywhere.)

His princely story of privilege might be a well-worn theme, but not done like this. He traveled to India, Russia, Bavaria and the fairy-tale land of Prince Charming. Even the models' hair was teased into regal crowns atop their heads. A black Lurex lace dress laser-cut to look like the wrought iron work of a palace gate, an emerald green velvet gown with looped fringe sleeves dissolving into bracelets and jeweled velvet leggings were just a few of Gaultier's inspired ideas.

In a season of so much froth, the Givenchy collection was a turnabout, inspired by woodland half-deities, daughters of ancient sea gods, medusas, sphinxes and other fierce creatures. Designer Riccardo Tisci roped in some pretty fierce creatures of his own for the front row, including Liz Goldwyn, Rachel Zoe and Courtney Love.

This man can tailor a jacket fitted perfectly around the waist with curved shoulders like ski slopes, worn here with downy white, Björk-style feather skirts. But it was the white draped jersey finale gown sliced with sequins that stole Love's attention (she wore it to perform at the after-party).

In between, the collection was raw and primitive — a jacket with a molded "spine," an allover leopard-spotted cat suit with matching helmet and shoes, and a crocodile skin tailcoat.

Not exactly clothes fit for a queen, but maybe for a queen of the jungle.

LA Times

 

[farren fashion]

just saw this photo from the afterparty, wow!
*please don't quote pictures*
[style]

like the disneyland show. hahaha. it's lovely.