Fashion Photography – Since an equestrian theme at Dior was evident from the first piped-in whinny and clap of hooves, the press notes for Friday’s fall show made for light farce.
Under the heading “The Seduction of the Libertine,” followed by a line of English verse (skip it), the notes detailed John Galliano’s collection of cavalry coats with blown-away collars, the riding tweeds and herringbones mixed with chunky sweaters, and the muted earth tones “romantically restrained like the rebelling gentry of then and today.”
The gentry? You mean those people who are running to Costco to stock up on Evian.
A half-dozen different romance novelists could have conceived a juicier plot, and as for the Delacroix-inspired evening dresses, lace and mousseline drapes in dusty pastels, you could find close-enough versions right now in shop windows.
Mr. Galliano’s haute couture show in January also had riding clothes as a theme, but a watered-down couture show is not really the problem with his latest collection. It is that we’ve seen most of these clothes before.
That was also the sense at Nina Ricci on Thursday night, though the designer Peter Copping has been at the house only a short while, succeeding Olivier Theyskens, who wasn’t there all that long. Mr. Copping focused on kittenish tweed suits and knits with lingerie effects, and silk evening dresses with corsages or seams left partly unstitched so that the clothes seemed a little drippy. The knits looked fresh and the attitude was youthful. All Mr. Copping has to do now is tell us a visually distinctive romantic story. Read more »
