Galliano Goes Nightclubbing in 1985
By Melanie Rickey
Photos by Gruber-FWD
PARIS, Oct 9, 2002/ FWD/ --- Was it a case of Let's Do The Timewarp Again, or a statement
of intent?
For his own collection, John Galliano channeled 1980s performance artist/drag queen
Leigh Bowery and his sidekick Trojan.
The result was a nutty, exuberant dress-up-fest that made liberal use of pumped-up volume,
drape, searing color and print and powder paint, and played with proportion.
Both of these colorful club scene characters who ruled London's outrageous 1980s gay club
scene - of which John Galliano was a key protagonist - are dead, but their legacy lives on.
Forget proper clothes, Leigh Bowery and Trojan fashioned their outfits from saris, wallpaper,
tinsel, sequins; their mums' curtains, binliners, and outrageous ballgowns of their own design.
So, it seemed, did Galliano.
Doubtlessly, a visit to the Galliano showroom will be more revealing on the clothes front
than this show.
There was, however, method to his madness: this was a presentation with a
have-fun-with-fashion message, not outfit suggestions.
The first passage of outfits was directly inspired by one of Trojan's famed early looks
entitled "Indians gone to Mars."
Models, each of whom had spent three hours being made up by Pat McGrath - pulling off
easily her most genius make-up looks ever - had tinsel afros, wore platform flip-flops,
and were dressed in colorful saris over mostly obscured 'normal' clothes.
The audience did get a peep at some gold leather trousers, Galliano branded underwear
and some military inspired jackets.
Galliano did turn the Bowery/Trojan influence into some real clothes if you could see
beyond the clouds of powder paint that wafted from the models as they strode with their
blue or green faces down the mirrored runway.
Sari fabric was turned into super-wide-leg pants, big hooded bombers, and beautiful
full-length dresses that wrapped around the body fluttering off here and there, topped
with giant hoods.
Thick cotton canvas was used to create outsized parkas, and mini-crini empire line dresses -
one of which may end up as a wedding dress for an eccentric bride.
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