Spring/Summer Couture : I Hope You Like Yellow

Atelier Versace

Atelier Versace

Alexis Mabille

Christian Dior

Christoffe Josse

Giambattista Valli

Maurizio Galante

Giambattista Valli

Raf Simon's first Haute Couture Collection for Dior

I could hardly wait for Couture Fashion Week.  I was eagerly looking forward to seeing what Raf Simons would turn out. For years, the Christian Dior Haute Couture shows have brought the most drama and excitement; it's hard to top Galliano's show-stopping confections. Then, of course, there was the confusion of Gaytten's collections. What would Raf bring to the table?

The Fall 2012 HC collection really seems like a return to the Dior aesthetic. One dress in particular, a red mid length belted dress with large pockets on the hip, really seemed to harken back to Dior's New Look. The new Dior has completely exorcised Galliano from it's system. I'll miss him, but I accept this return to Dior's traditional spirit. Gone are the theatrical shapes of recent past; the focus now is on rounded hips, cinched waists and layered bodices that are meant to resemble petals. It's those bodices that I don't like. They made me think of crumb catchers, and their side profile was a bit too close to Madonna's cone-shaped bras. The videos below barely capture the details and texture of the fabrics. I believe this collection really needs to be seen up-close in order for its true beauty to be appreciated.

Christian Dior Haute Couture S/S 2012 Paris

completely out of order. sorry about that.

Dior Couture, Fall 2010 in Bloom Magazine

"Death of a Painter" by Simon Procter

Christian Dior, Haute Couture F/W 11.12 - now with video

PARIS, July 4, 2011

By Tim Blanks

You can't be down on a boy with a dream. For decades, Bill Gaytten strives under John Galliano's yoke as one of his most intimate facilitators, then suddenly fate conspires to throw him into the lead role, and he has the means to do everything he has ever wanted to do, everything he has ever bitten his tongue over. What's more, he has a team of the industry's best who have cherished him these long years for the adorable creature he is, and they are prepared to help him realize his dream: Stephen Jones with his headpieces, Jeremy Healy on beats, Michael Howells with his set design, Pat McGrath on makeup, Orlando Pita on hair. And they do this not just because they love Bill but because they want to acknowledge the achievements of his fallen master.

So what happens next?

On the evidence of today's first Dior couture show without John Galliano, what happens is a misjudged effort to impress an alien thumbprint on an aesthetic that, for better or worse, is one of the fashion industry's most clearly defined. After the show, a remarkably sanguine, even elated Gaytten was perfectly happy to celebrate the opportunity he'd been given to bring his own tastes to the fore, and they were significantly architectural: Frank Gehry, Jean-Michel Frank, the Memphis movement of the eighties. The opening outfit—a crazy-paving jacket with a ruffled collar and a full pleated skirt—kind of caught the postmodern madness of Memphis. And the subsequent parade of folded, tiered, unfinished taffeta, gazar, and organza had a similar assault-on-couture-orthodoxy vibe. There was a Bar jacket or two in the mix, acknowledging Dior's legacy, but the overriding sense was that a demon, long-contained, had been released, so that the Dior woman had suddenly been possessed by a disco dolly who, to the strains of Grace Jones, would blow out her hair and rampage to the nearest dance floor in a molto-bat-winged hostess gown that perfectly captured the campiness of cult-fave TV play Abigail's Party.

News Update - Bill Gaytten Named Creative Director of Galliano

Source - NYMag
Bill Gaytten has been named creative director of John Galliano, following the departure of its namesake, who awaits the verdict of his public-defamation trial. For the role, Christian Dior CEO Sidney Toledano hand-picked Gaytten, who worked under Galliano for 23 years and took the final bow at the Galliano men's show on Friday in Paris. Reports WWD:

“It’s the same job for me; I’ve been doing it for a long time,” he demurred. “It was a bit different because John wasn’t there.”

Indeed, he confessed with a laugh: “I’m dying to know what he thinks!”

The appointment comes following New York Times critic Cathy Horyn's reports from LVMH sources that executives had been toying with the idea of reinstating John Galliano the man at John Galliano the label. However, at the Dior Homme show on Saturday, LVMH chief Bernard Arnault told Horyn that Galliano would definitely not return.

“He will not be working for LVMH,” Mr. Arnault said after the Dior Homme show in Paris. Mr. Arnault added that after Mr. Galliano’s arrest and dismissal from Dior for anti-Semitic statements, “he didn’t have the simple politeness to contact me.”

Gaytten will oversee the Christian Dior couture collection showing in Paris next week, surely fueling speculation he might succeed Galliano at that label as well. WWD notes:

Christian Dior, Haute Couture Spring 2011

"Soublime la Couture"
Madame Figaro Feb 7, 2011
Photographer : Dominique Issermann
Model : Diane Kruger

Christian Dior, RTW Fall 2011 - Highlights

Galliano's final 61 piece collection artfully blended bold, masculine overcoats and leather boots with romantic, sheer gowns.  Here is a collection of my favorite looks.

Karlie Kloss