PARIS FASHION WEEK: What do off-duty icons wear? That was the starting point in Paris yesterday for John Galliano's autumn/winter collection for Dior held in the Espace Ephemere in the Tuileries Gardens.
A high quotient of icons in the front row, all dressed in Dior, included actresses Julianne Moore, Marisa Berenson and singers Marianne Faithfull and Diana Ross, the latter in town to receive the Freedom of the City from the Mayor.
Berenson in a low-cut black suit, racoon throw, veiled pillbox and heavy silver rings cut quite an off-runway dash, but given the unseemly crush of camera teams (there were 12 around Ross alone) and photographers, one would have thought that what the icons needed most were protective shields and shades. The collection opened with a series of high-visibility striped black and white mohair jumpers worn with high boots and butcher boy hats. Two pianists at grand pianos provided musical accompaniment.
This was Galliano in a lower key than usual with his own riffs on the familiar stuff of everyday streetwear like jeans, reefer jackets and sheepskin coats. Notable were details like the upturned curve of a pagoda shoulder on an hourglass jacket, the oversize lapels on a rugged sheepskin and the empire line of a pinafore in nut-brown leather. A khaki jacket with lamé trousers was a typical, romanticised mix of the utilitarian and the glamorous. Snakeskin or crocodile jeans, sequinned baby doll dresses and a coat in blood red velvet sharpened the pace. A finale of dreamy ice blue and silver grey chiffon dresses some spangled, some in snowflake prints and one worn under a mini-Perfecto was a reminder that when it comes to romantic evening wear, Galliano still hits the right note.
Vivienne Westwood brought her usual irreverence to military attire, calling her collection Propaganda, the letters used in a recurring motif throughout the show. Her familiar swagging, draping and umbrella folding of fabric made skirts or coats swing around the models in quirky points and puckers. Quilted coats cut askew and army greatcoats in war colours like grey, taupe or steel, came with martial helmets of felt and patent leather boots. She has just launched her own diamond collection, but in between the madcap Regency can-can dresses and a dramatic bronze satin crinoline were jewels like a trim steel grey satin jacket worn with skintight slate trousers.
Frock coats and waistcoats were everywhere at Marithe and Francois Girbaud who can really cut it in every sense when it comes to a well-turned jacket.
The pair recently shocked France with an advertising campaign featuring models in a Last Supper tableau, but there was nothing sacrilegious about this collection with its Chaplinesque touches like wide trousers, shrunken velvet jackets and spats. Shapely bustle skirts and coats added a modern flamboyance and relevance to period silhouettes.