ThisNext Blog

“If you’re getting into the forties this season (and that’s definitely one way to go), John Galliano is the man to fulfill those latent Joan Crawford urges, no holds barred,” writes Voguette Sarah Mower for Style.com.

Your K’s more for flapper frocks and original It girl Clara Bow, though I’m sure—

“His ready-to-wear collection for Christian Dior was virtually a camp-fabulous Hollywood spectacular—like a pumped-up 2007 remake of The Women (Cukor, 1939; ever a fashion favorite), but this time played out in full glorious purple, pistachio, electric blue, and fuchsia, rather than black and white.”

Fabulousness, because if you’re living largely, life isn’t only bouncing between two colorless shades—your life ought to be psychedellic Pucci-print scarves, sky denim Birkin bags, it should be—

“A comeback from last season’s comparatively muted collection, this was Galliano performing at full throttle, filling the runway with 58 girls dressed, as grandma would say, to the nines,” reports Sarah.

I think my grams would pop an “Oh my word” at those lush and luxe blooming fur sleeves, though that excess is an echo of her era, of Monsieur Dior’s ’40s New Look, a true—

“—homage to Dior,” says Sarah, “the dove-gray runway, the banked flowers, and the balustrade staircase—and partly, it was, as the French rather awkwardly translate it, a collection ‘declined’ from Galliano’s triumphant ‘Madame Butterfly’ haute couture collection for Spring.”

 

You mean his East greets West,  origami originals that had ladies cooing and ooh la loving, you mean—

“BAM!” says ThisNexter CrankyBiscuit. “Instant love.”

Excuse you, doll? I’m fond of you, too, baby, but in the middle of getting my blog on and hitting my deadline.  Though I get—

“How could I not mention this beautiful Dior ‘Trotter Romantique’ flap bag?” says CrankyBiscuit.

You’re right, lovely. So give your K the key points, like—

“Sweeping, curvy lines, velvet trim, interwoven chain straps… If you don’t appreciate this bag, then you need to turn in your second X chromosome,” says CrankyBiscuit. “It’s very feminine, but I like that they didn’t go completely overboard and made it a warm beige instead of pink. This bag is part of the Fall Runway collection—” 

Which, forgive me, we haven’t finished covering.  Back to the catwalk, Ms. Sarah, back to how—

“To ‘decline,’ in fashion-Franglais, means to take the wildly expensive handcrafted fantasies of couture and turn them into factory-produced lookie-likeys,” writes Sarah. “Sometimes ‘declension’ (here and elsewhere) can actually lead to decline, i.e.: disappointing commercial husks of the original thought.”

But?

“But now, in a flurry of energy and application, Galliano has upped the ante for Dior, reproducing believably close simulacra of such details,” writes Sarah. “Galliano’s draping, ingeniously wrapped to the hip in a purple skirtsuit and a chartreuse day dress, or deployed as one-shouldered asymmetries and sashes for cocktail and evening, created husband-hunting outfits of a type guaranteed to net results, be it 1947 or 2007.”

And now we’ve wrapped ‘round to why your K  prefers 1927 and Coco Chanel—your K is hardly married to the idea of marriage.

Unless we’re talking about that foxy, furred jacket.