At the Dior show in the Tuileries Garden in Paris yesterday, John Galliano sent out an autumn/winter collection outstanding for its sense of colour, cut and conception. In contrast to the subdued response last season, this one was greeted with roars and whistles from an approving audience.
In a year that celebrates not only the 60th anniversary of Dior's revolutionary "New Look" , but also a decade of Galliano's tenure at the helm of the famous fashion house, the British-born designer marked it with style.
A sweeping staircase flanked with white hydrangeas set the tone of the show. Chic daywear referenced the 40s in its shapely tailoring and use of details such as thin belts, rear trains and draped derrieres. Fur, making its appearance in many collections this season, was used lavishly along the sleeves of python or leather suits, but the stars of the show were the quiet, superbly cut day dresses in wool or tweed with delicate silver embroidery or pintucked in soft grey suede. Dresses for evening, many encrusted with jewelled embroideries, came in rainbow-coloured organzas and taffetas. It was movie-star glamour from start to finish and every item from the handbeaded coral silks to the black ballgowns seemed designed for a red carpet destiny.
Vivienne Westwood is known for scary footwear, but there was a confident stride to the pantomime Puss in Boot styles and shiny copper patent numbers at her show. With her usual playful anarchy, she sent out a collection in which the governing ethos seemed to be that too much is never enough. Wide shoulders and capes, strong trends for the coming season, featured here in huge Mongolian cream knits and blanket coats with Mexican motifs. Dresses with pointy rocket pockets, grey suits with slashed seams and wild Scottish tartans scattered with silver were par for the course.
Some of her spirit seems to have infected Marithe & Francois Girbaud, a successful French commercial duo known for their ability to tame street-wear trends into chic citywear. Trousers with flying gaiters, skirts with hanging pouches and corsetted dresses had a kind of Westwood wackiness, but the raised and puckered shoulders of a narrow coat in contrasting shades of grey and another inset with a chiffon skirt seemed more emblematic of their style.