Christian Dior by John Galliano: Teddy Girls Meet Flapper Girls
By Michelle Taylor
Photos by Javier Mateo

PARIS, Mar 3,2004/ FW/ --- John Galliano is the post modern prince (looking as gorgeous as ever) and Dior is his designing playground as he pumped out caricatured exaggerations of Teddy Girls cum 1920’s.

It may sound like a strange mix, but then Galliano is never predictable (except for the fact that he is bound to take the imagination to new limits), oddly enough this however is not his strongest collection in recent years, though always fun, but fun is not necessarily new or stunning.

He took inspiration from a generation that began youth culture, in the 1950’s Britain where lads and ladies known as Teddy boys and girls for the first time experimented with fashion and self expression by wearing clothes that were originally designed to shock, too camp for the average worker with their velvet collars and suede shoes with thick soles.

The Galliano Ted begins with make-up, camouflaged thickly to the point where his top prancing pretties are almost unrecognisable, XXXL jackets with fur lapels and exaggerated shoulders singularly buttoned somewhere near the thigh region while trousers and pants are mod to the ankles revealing bobby socks or over large and hip hop with fur hemlines.

Shadowy figures are still searching for delicate femininity in chiffon flapper dresses and ruffles (of course!), but this gal is searching for something more masculine and confident through new shapes for women, like the full length flowing and voluminous skirts that puffed out from underneath long jackets with huge collars and important lapels.

Fabric mixing and a pattern picnic with animal prints were delightful and fresh, and arrays of plastic Dior bracelets and the new bag that will see LVHM’s economics continue to rise up the grid scale.

In the entire spectacle that is John Galliano and Dior, he, however was the real Teddy Rockabilly boy at the end of the catwalk as Elvis possibly turned over in his grave with jealousy.

Christian Dior by John Galliano

Christian Dior by John Galliano

Christian Dior by John Galliano

Christian Dior by John Galliano