Fashion File - John Galliano

John Galliano - Spring/Summer 2007

After the unconventionally staid offerings presented at Dior earlier in the week, John Galliano surprised his star-studded audience by keeping his signature wild style in check. Missing was the over the top runway theatrics fans have come to expect. In its place was a surprisingly grown up affair, light on drama and heavy on thoroughly wearable clothing.

John Galliano - Fall/Winter 2006

The theme of John Galliano’s latest collection is American Gothic and the dark dusty romance of the West lends itself well to his aesthetic. The frontier was never so fashionable.

John Galliano - Spring/Summer 2006

Age and size are usually the two trickiest subjects for the fashion industry, where a preference for willowy teens puts it on the defense most of the time. Galliano took them both to the extreme with this controversial, carnival-esque presentation that had the audience cheering his fresh perspective and squirming in their seats. From the runway, on the other hand, the only feeling we took away was pride.

John Galliano - Fall/Winter 2005

John Galliano has always been something of a theatrical fellow, so his love of a good cinematic inspiration makes perfect sense. In a season where the film The Aviator has captured the imagination of many of his colleagues, Galliano has plunged behind the silver screen – dressing icons and playing director himself.

John Galliano - Spring/Summer 2005

Let’s face it, Barbara Hutton was known for many things but rocking out was never one of them. In Galliano's hands, however, the “poor little rich girl” has gone from down on her luck head first into grunge, and somehow emerges with her best-dressed status intact.

John Galliano - Fall/Winter 2004

John Galliano is a brilliant fashion mind, but he is also a brilliant businessman. This has been honed at Dior, where the machine of business is focused on key pieces and must-have accessories, but this Galliano collection will arrive in his own store, and there are plenty of sculpted jackets, great knits, and beautiful prints mixed with his signature bias-cut dresses to make this a commercial hit. The trip from runway to retail is shorter than you might think.

John Galliano - Spring/Summer 2004

You can always count on John Galliano to pick a couple of obscure references and mix 'em together in an interesting way. For his signature label this season, he was inspired by the way Brooke Shields looked in the 1978 movie Pretty Baby and by the look of old Victorian dolls. The resulting collection, while pretty to look at, is not what most people would call wearable.

John Galliano - Fall/Winter 2003

John Galliano has been busy earning himself the title of fashion’s ‘mad genius’ with his recent collections for his signature label. Charged with showing costume rather than clothing, this season marks Galliano’s return to tailored cocktail dressing. Mining the 1940s for inspiration, he brought his gleefully cartoonish take to some of the strictest silhouettes of the past century.

John Galliano - Spring/Summer 2003

John Galliano is as much an illusionist as he is a fashion designer and watching his collections unfold is like watching hallucinogenic dreams come to life. Bollywood films were the starting point for this collection. With their exotic characters and exaggerated gestures, this form of pop culture mirrored Galliano's thirst for exuberance at this moment in time. The outfits that looked more like costumes than clothes were Galliano's tribute to the spirit of competitive dressing in the 1980s, inspired by London club icons Leigh Bowery and his drag queen side-kick, Trojan. Galliano enhanced the theatrical spectacle with a technicolor simulation of the Hindu holi festival where colored dyes are thrown through the air in a riotous celebration of life.

John Galliano - Fall/Winter 2002

In yet another intoxicating hit of ingenuity, the pleasure principal was out in full force as princess warriors animated the dreamlike visions of John Galliano's wild and wonderful imagination. Tribal globetrotting has been a recurring theme in Galliano's recent collections for both Dior and his own line but, chameleon that he is, John manages to redefine the imagery in the language of each respective label. These idiosyncratic, personality driven clothes drew on ethnic influences from the four corners of the globe in an expressive symphony of individuality.

John Galliano - Spring/Summer 2002

The bad boy of fashion, John Galliano, sure knows how to shake things up. For spring 2002 his ideas exploded down on the catwalk in a wildly crazy mix of patterns, colours, cultures and decades leaving his audience reeling from the bombardment of creativity.