The Fashion BusinessThe name ‘Diorient Express’ stencilled onto the side of the train aptly
suggested both Galliano’s orientalism, which eclectically combined cultures,
continents and centuries, and the disorienting effects of his showmanship.
Although the ‘Diorient Express’ show was, perhaps, his most excessive in
terms of spectacular presentation it was far from the only one. Other shows
were staged in a suburban sports stadium transformed into a forest scene
with forty-foot high spruce trees, the Paris Opéra converted into an English
garden where the fashion photographers were given straw hats on entry,
and the Carousel du Louvre, the official venue for the Paris collections, made
over as a Manhattan rooftop scene, complete with battered chimney stacks,
designed, like most of his shows, by the set designer Jean-Luc Ardouin. In
every case, Galliano’s transformation of a space involved effacing its real
characteristics in the interests of imposing his fantasy vision on the space.
In keeping with the spectacular mis-en-scène of his shows of this period,
each collection was based on a fantastical narrative. For example, in an earlier
collection than the one illustrated here, Pocahontas met Wallace Simpson in
Paris, designed her own couture collection (which included beaded flapper
dresses) and took it back to her tribe (the Galliano Autumn-Winter 1996
collection); or, in the ‘Suzy Sphinx’ show a punk schoolgirl who dreamt of
cinema and ancient Egypt was taken from her English girl’s school through
Egypt to Hollywood where she starred as Cleopatra in a film, seated on a
golden throne wearing a dress made entirely of golden safety pins (the
Galliano Autumn-Winter 1997 collection).
Galliano’s first collection for Dior had juxtaposed Masai beading and
couture historicism in full-blown evening gowns that required 410 metres of
fabric. In his designs of this period, Galliano’s historical research ranged far
and wide. Galliano himself said, ‘It’s a very impressionistic approach. It’s a
dialogue between past and present. The starting point is usually factual, but
we allow our imaginations to run riot. The story happens differently each
time. Certain things begin to go around in my head and then we start to
embroider on them.’^4 Sometimes his designs collaged together motifs from
different cultures, juxtaposing them against each other, mixing maharaja
jewels and an aigrette with Burmese neck jewellery and Afro-Caribbean
braids, while styling the model to look spookily uptight and Parisian. At
other times he morphed references and motifs from different periods and
cultures into single fusions. His collections eclectically mix images of
japonisme with those of the Weimar Republic, early cinema and the belle
époque, images of Empire and Masai beading.
- McDowell, Colin, Galliano,London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997, pp. 51.