Given John Galliano's track record of whizzing an overload of a trillion colors and cultural references past his bedazzled Dior audience, it hardly seems possible to say he's settling down. But this fall collection is almost classic in its Dior-isms containing all the patterns, symbols and accessories on which Galliano has re-built the house foundations. That means ethnic color and print, love of the eighteenth century, an obsession with bias-cut dresses, a "sauvage" method of cutting all his own—and, of course, the constantly updated Dior saddlebags.
Galliano's girls stormed out in Peruvian knitted hats sprouting huge Mohawks, their feet bound up in fur moccasin-boots. The clothes were sexily recut from a haul of Indian, South American, Mongolian and Tibetan materials. Flouncy skirts edged in gold Indian print sometimes with bells around the hem, Indian mirrored and gold embroidery, Hungarian rose folk prints, lacquered leather paisley and Chinese quilting—they were all there in a breathless melee. Standouts were the ruffled skirts with their gilded edges, and a patchwork inside-out fur with huge shoulders, painted to run from rose red through orange on the outside.
This season's saddlebag update—fresh accessories being a crucial part of every designer business—is oversized and done in patchwork suede and fur. As a nod to Christian Dior heritage, Galliano threw in some 1940s coats worn with round-toed pumps and woolly knee socks. But we hardly need the "roots" reminders these days. Galliano has so thoroughly remade the house in his own image, who cares?
