With his new collection for John Galliano, Bill Gaytten was inspired by all the things he could do with jacquard. The patterns and textures made him think of the artisanal and the organic, which—in that leap of faith you must take at face value with creative types—took him deep into the jungle: Bamboo prints, wood-veneer-trimmed basket weaves, patterns of scarification, and vivid applications of iridescent plastic leaves window-dressed the theme. Silhouettes were mostly high-waisted, layered or pleated, short—a little on the schoolgirl side. Boxy, cropped jackets, half-belted high in the back, compounded that effect. When hems went floorward, there were floaty mousselines and organzas in vivid jungle greens. Everything was shown with blocky platform clogs.
Give Gaytten this much: He has the courage of his unwavering convictions. From the first look (a faux-gorilla cropped jacket made of silk organza tubes arduously applied one at a time) to the last (exactly the same piece, in lime green), he stuck to his guns. To give this peculiar exercise its most positive spin in the light of recent Galliano outings, you might conclude that Gaytten has decided a cartoon-ish, manga-ish path is the best route to the future. Down that road there maybe lies a client for these clothes.
