Gibraltar born John Galliano epitomizes Drama in the heady world of fashion. Incredible draped dresses with elaborate headpieces, it is hard to doubt the power of the mans creativity. High-low, haute-street, minimal-opulent — the sartorial extremes that have become ingrained in fashion’s parlance. John Galliano has experienced extremes on a far deeper level, the object at different points in his career of raptured celebration and stunned censure.
“Anyone involved in fashion during Galliano’s glory years at Dior, the mid-Nineties through early Aughts, knows his best shows for the house, and simultaneously, his own label, resulted in moments of pure magic. A dreamer with the imagination and skill to realize his dreams as glorious runway reveries, he was the right talent in the right place at the right time. Fashion then was far less clinical and more romantic than now, and more likely to group-swoon over something exquisite, whether or not there was a great deal of real-world crossover. It was also more indulgent of designer angst. But somewhere along the line, his runway magic started to fade. The shows grew increasingly erratic and less compelling, some with a palpable undercurrent of anger. Now we know why.”
Galliano left fashion in 2011 for personal reasons. He reemerged in 2016 with “a very different approach to showing than during his Dior height — instead of fantastical, intricately appointed sets, he shows in an intimate, no-frills plain white space — the intense creativity is back in full force. “It’s design,” Galliano says of his process.”
