it's so disappointing in so many ways, but for me, the biggest disappointment comes in the fact that i honestly don't even see people aspiring for this dior look. it's just like this fashion anomaly that we feel compelled to follow six times a year.
I've despised this Dior "look" since its beginnings (which i think we would agree are in the mid/late noughties). I've hated John for not realizing this. If hated him for losing his sparkle, for giving up.
I wonder if we could call this collection "an all time low".
The FT recently published an interview to Joan Burstein (Mrs B from Browns in London), where she talked about the various talented designers that she has met and helped launch their careers.
John, of course was one of them. She was one who immediately spotted his talent (she bought his entire graduate collection from CSM).
Of his talent and his collections she said:
"it was so wild...
a whole different concept...
it wasn't conforming to anything; it was himself and what he felt at that time.
That inspiration that makes a designer want to give something so different. I met him at that very initial stage"
I never thought he would be designing for Dior but I always knew he would be wonderful"
I can't help wondering, how all that talent got wasted so fast.
Is there anything left of that revel Gibraltarian he used to be?
What I was most tempted to think at first, was that just as precociously as he had attained his star couturier status, he could be experiencing the decline many grand designers go through at the end of their careers.
Valentino, for instance, could be regarded as someone who for many seasons (particularly at the end of his career), found it impossible to evolve and stay relevant.
Nevertheless, that would seem unfair to Valentino, who after all, always stayed true to his values and what he thought made women beautiful.
The same can't be said about Galliano. Galliano has gone perhaps in Saint Laurent's way.
There's a documentary somewhere on youtube about the 30th anniversary of YSL and his couture house. It's a long, documentary with lots of footage. The old saint laurent, the young saint laurent.
In one of his earlier interviews, he states how much he hates "la bourgeoisie", how he tries to make clothes for a different woman.
At the end of the documentary however, it is a very different Saint Laurent speaking. His collections have been consistent rehashes of his glorified 70s collections. the critics still respect him, but they all point out how little he is contributing to fashion.
And that is a lot like what John is doing today at Dior. Even worse, at least Yves was basing his later work on his own sources. Galliano, unfortunately is not even exploiting his own talent, but the Dior archives. Bar suits, pastels, the boxy kennedy like dresses... it's artificial and dated.
Just as recognizable and predictable as the all over logos he was doing a decade ago, only this is by no means shocking or in any way groundbreaking.
This isn't Dior for the chic competent woman takes pleasure in dressing up and uses the bodyhugging cut of a bias cut dress as her tools and sure weapons.
I see this woman as the spoiled billionaire, divorced mother of three who wants to believe there's still hope for her beyond a scalpel or her biannual botox. Dior therefor becomes paradise for the silicon monsters, peroxide blond addicts, dressed in pretty pink around the year to make sure everyone gets the message that they are 'classy and fabulous'.
Nothing to do with the almost obscure elegant lady of whom we could expect almost anything not that many years ago, that's for sure
)
