Good news, everyone – it’s cool to be an uptight, rich plutocrat again! Adjust accordingly.
Really, where would those ideals be more appropriately on display than at the Christian Dior Haute Couture show this week in Paris? John Galliano styled his Cruella-meets-English-nobility show with riding crops and streaks of Bride of Frankenstein grey hair, and although I didn’t adore this collection as much as I did the lingerie-as-outerwear show from six months ago, I couldn’t help but smile. Haute Couture Week is like getting a big, beaded, sparkly fashion hug.
This collection is kind of brilliant in that the people that actually will have enough money to buy it have probably been rich for so many generations that they may not see it as at all interesting or subversive – it’s merely retro! It’s like what grandmother wore when she rode out to meet grandfather after his fox hunts! And people apparently still do that sort of stuff, according to a fantastically wealthy girl that lived on my hall during my freshman year of college. Really, it’s weird to ask an 18-year-old chick what she’s doing for the weekend and hear her say, without a trace if irony, that she’s going to her family’s estate for the traditional fall hunt.
Anyway, that’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about couture! Sadly, I mostly preferred the stiff-upper-lip styling and and equestrian touches to the actual clothes, although there were a few pieces that were absolute standouts. The lightly colored lace dresses, the red and grey color schemes that reminded me of the cinematography in Inglourious Basterds, and the tuxedo redux ruffled ballgown were all enough to transport me entirely to the land of Galliano’s couture vision.
Images via Fashionologie
