Pages:
Blog Categories:
Our Sponsor:
Swing music and DVDs, free shipping worldwide, at
Christian Dior
Galliano’s Sad Finale: Christian Dior Fall 2011 Ready-to-Wear
Well, you all know how great a fan I have been of John Galliano’s work for the house of Christian Dior, so this is a sad post. I’m sure you have all heard how Galliano has been dismissed from Christian Dior, after being publicly disgraced in relation to antisemitic and pro-Nazi statements, and he has now checked himself into rehabilitation for alcoholism. Yes, I know. Shock. Disbelief. This was his last ready-to-wear collection for Dior, and as usual, has so much I adore. Apparently the show was a sad affair, with a long speech from the CEO Sidney Toledano and, in place of Galliano’s usual flamboyant strut down the catwalk at the end, a gathering of the collection’s design team, seamstresses and craftsmen on stage, and both cheering and weeping from the audience. As Tim Blanks at Style.com noted, “The only precedent for this situation is Coco Chanel’s postwar denunciation as a Nazi collaboratrice. Her exile from the fashion world lasted nine years.”
Tagged: catwalk, Christian Dior, collection, Dior, Fall 2011, final, Galliano, John Galliano, last, Ready to Wear, RTW, show
Hair & Makeup: Christian Dior Spring 2011
As promised, the backstage hair and makeup shots from the ready-to-wear show. In a few shots you can see they used facelift tape to lift the models’ brows, just like they did in the couture show. And nice shots showing how they curled the models’ hair, and the false betty bangs. The colour match on most of the bangs is fantastic, only one or two of the blondes are a little mismatched, but I love the look. High pigment, bright block colours seem to be the go for eyeshadows this season. Lovely to see the black eyeliner kitten flicks over the top. Some nice colour inspiration here, perhaps I will branch out a little more. Galliano’s shows always inspire me to be more theatrical.
Tagged: 1950s, backstage, bangs, Betty Paige, catseye, Christian Dior, fifties, John Galliano
Top Picks: Christian Dior Spring 2011 Ready-to-Wear
Am I sick of Galliano for Christian Dior yet? Never!! So this ready-to-wear collection is nothing on the couture I posted a few days ago, but ain’t it sweet? Keeping nautical in for spring I see – hello sailor! – and more catseye sunglasses. Oh, and the Bettie bangs (false on the models), brilliant! I’ll post up the hair and makeup shots as well, so you can get a closer look.
I’m more a fan of the styling of the show, than of the individual pieces, but my favourite in the collection is probably the pink ribbon dress. I would love to dance in that… not that there’s much to it. It reminds me a little of Cyd Charisse’s green flapper dress in Singin’ in the Rain. Laura Glaess has a lovely recreation of that. Enjoy!
Tagged: bangs, Betty Paige, catseye sunglasses, Christian Dior, glasses, John Galliano, nautical, RTW, sailor hat, Spring 2011
Galliano’s Inspiration for Christian Dior Couture Spring 2011 Collection: René Gruau
René Gruau was a fashion illustrator, most famous for his work in the 1940s and 1950s. He walked away from his father’s aristocratic heritage (his father was an Italian count), to pursue an artistic career in Paris in the twenties. As an illustrator his work was first published when he was only 14 years old, in the mid-1920s. He illustrated throughout the 1920s and 1930s, but during the Second World War, work was harder to find for artists, which is what led Gruau to illustrate for lesser known designers, including the then lesser-known Christian Dior. He became artistic director for advertising for Christian Dior in 1947. Gruau and Dior worked together to shape and market the New Look, and became close friends, hence why Gruau is most often associated with the house of Dior.
He didn’t only illustrate for Dior however, but for other designers and fashion houses including Pierre Balmain, Jacques Fath, Balenciaga, Elsa Schiaparelli, Rochas, Lanvin, Elizabeth Arden, and Hubert de Givenchy, and for many magazines including Marie-Claire, Femina, Elle, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Flair, L’Officiel and Madame Figaro, not to mention those illustrations for The Moulin Rouge and Lido in Paris that you may recognise.
His illustrations shaped the path of Haute Couture, and influenced fashion itself, in a true life-imitating-art-imitating-life way. For me Gruau’s women are glamour and high-society, femininity and sensuality. When I see his illustrations I think of Paris, I think of Vogue, I think of champagne and the Moulin Rouge, and the French Riviera, of perfume and red lipstick. Gruau died at the age of 95 in 2004 – so recently! *sigh*
Visit the official Rene Gruau website .
Tagged: 1940s, 1950s, Christian Dior, fashion, fifties, forties, Haute Couture, illustration, inspiration, Rene Gruau, vogue
Backstage Hair & Makeup at Christian Dior Couture Spring 2011
Backstage shots of hair and makeup at the show, fantastico! You can see, to give the models that haughty, high cheek-boned and highly arched brow look of Rene Gruau’s fashion illustrations in the 1950s, they used Face Lift Tape! Apparently it’s common in the fashion world and the entertainment industry, I had no idea!
Tagged: 1940s, 1950s, Christian Dior, Face lift tape, fifties, forties, Hair, Haute Couture Collections, John Galliano, makeup, Spring 2011
Details at Christian Dior Haute Couture Spring 2011
Thanks to , we can get a closer peek at the lovely coiffed hair, Gruau-esque makeup, killer heels, contrasting colored gloves, half-moon manicures and fine details that made me love this show so so much…
Tagged: 1940s, 1950s, Christian Dior, fifties, forties, gloves, half moon manicure, Haute Couture Collections, John Galliano
John Galliano for Christian Dior Haute Couture Spring 2011
Oh god, kill me now! I can die happy after this collection. It’s Galliano’s tribute to Christian Dior’s fashion illustrator, Rene Gruau, who made the New Look so iconic in the 1940s and 50s. Perhaps I’ll post some Gruau illustrations to let you see just how strong the influence is here. It also reminds me of Gene Kelly and An American in Paris, which I watched again recently. Oh Galliano, marry me! Or more to the point, dress me!
Here is the entire collection. I would normally just post my top picks, but I feel this one stands as a whole. Enjoy!
Tagged: 1940s, 1950s, 2011, Christian Dior, fifties, forties, Haute Couture Collections, John Galliano, Rene Gruau
Oh my, I never posted the Christian Dior Fall 2008 Couture collection?
Gasp! I must right this wrong immediately! One of my all-time favourite shows:
Sarah Mower on :
Categories: On CatwalksIn a way, it was a classic: combining the indelible fifties inspiration of Lisa Fonssagrives, Dior mannequin and wife of Irving Penn, and that of the new model of French conservative chic, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. Those two streams of thought merged into a collection John Galliano called “fresh couture—restrained and refined.” If it didn’t exactly result in 100 percent conventionality (there were plenty of sheer skirts and fetishistic patent belts that might not work at a political summit), the happy fact that the first lady of France has chosen to dress at Dior gave Galliano full rein to revel in the realms of glamour the house established 60 years ago.
The templates were all there: big coats, wasp waists, nipped jackets, circle skirts, tulle dance dresses, architectural gowns cut from spiraling lace and jutting scrolls of crin. Mostly framed in black and white, with tints of gray, caramel, Parma violet, mint, and chartreuse to follow, the shapes traced familiar silhouettes—albeit a familiarity shot through with Galliano’s irrepressible touches of perversity. A nod to Dior’s New Look peplum became a stiff patent hip-jutting belt with cross-lacing in the back, and a knowing acknowledgment of the basis of the hourglass silhouette came in a couple of see-through gowns with the corsetry fully on display. Still, this was Christian Dior very much under control and within the scope of reality. Add some lingerie and take off the belts, and it’s no stretch at all to imagine Madame Sarkozy finding plenty here to wow the world in her demure manner, come fall.
Tagged: 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, Christian Dior, cloche, fifties, forties, Haute Couture Collections, thirties, twenties, vamp
Top Picks: Christian Dior Fall 2007 couture
Tagged: 1940s, 1950s, Christian Dior, couture, Fall 2007, fantasy, fifties, forties
Flashback: Christian Dior Fall 2003 Couture
High-glam flappers, showgirls and cabaret singers, revamped in technicolor…
Tagged: 1920s, Christian Dior, flapper, twenties
Catching up on Christian Dior: Fall 2010
Just three picks from the Dior Fall 2010 show…
Tagged: 2010, Christian Dior, fall, John Galliano
Dior Goes Back in Time for Pre-Fall 2010
The Christian Dior Pre-Fall 2010 collection was all WWII French Resistance and 1930s bias cut gowns straight off the silver screen. Check out the pincurls on the model too! Can you believe that silver lamé number? If I could wear that onstage, I swear I’d learn to sing better! I like the model too, Heloise Guerin. Ahh, Galliano, how do I love thee…
Tagged: 1930s, 1940s, 2010, Christian Dior, forties, John Galliano, pre-fall, thirties, wwii
Vintage Doll: Emma Watson in Italian Vogue
I’m not quite sure why Emma Watson has become a fashion darling, she just seems so very young to me. Not that she’s not very pretty, I just think perhaps she needs to grow into her looks. But anyway, they certainly glammed her up for this shoot in Italian Vogue. The rest of the looks were kind of baroque Cinderella meets Lord of the Rings, but these two I like very much. That sheer blue Christian Dior dress just keeps popping up on this blog (here and here).
Tagged: Christian Dior, Emma Watson, italia, Italian, italy, vogue
Christian Dior Spring 2010 Haute Couture
From :
“Tally ho Dior!
Equestrian chic was the big news in Christian Dior’s spring haute couture show Monday afternoon, Jan. 25, in Paris, where the house’s couturier John Galliano looked to find ladies who hunted, rather than lunched.
Specifically, Galliano referenced the late 19th century women who inspired Charles James, the neo-classical American designer whose more extravagant shapes also inspired Monsieur Christian Dior himself when he developed the 1947 New Look show, one of the most influential collections ever made.”
Here are some of my favorites:
[Photos: Catwalking.com/Wireimage]
Tagged: Christian Dior, equestrian, Haute Couture Collections, Paris, Spring 2010
Top Picks: Christian Dior Spring 2010 Ready-To-Wear
Red lipstick, side-split hair falling in long shiny waves (oh so Lauren Bacall), trench coats, platform heels, ruffled skirts, cinched waists, lacy lingerie details and flimsy feminine fabrics… love it! God bless John Galliano…
Tagged: 1930s, catwalk, Christian Dior, fashion, Galliano, lingerie, Ready to Wear, red lipstick, RTW, show, Spring 2010, thirties, trenchcoat
Top Picks: Dior Ready to Wear Fall 2009
Tagged: catwalk, Christian Dior, collection, Fall 2009, Ready to Wear, RTW, show