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At Dior, Cajun Queen Meets High Baroque
Written by Timothy Hagy
PARIS, July 6 - The Christian Dior couture show, held on Tuesday afternoon in a tent erected on the grounds of the Polo Club de Paris, featured vintage John Galliano in all of his regal splendor.
With guests Katie Holmes ,Val Kilmer, Marissa Berensen, Liz Hurley and Madame de Pompidou all fanning themselves furiously, as sticky air in the overheated tent turned sultry, LVMH first family Bernard and Hélène Arnault with Delphine and Antoine warmly greeted all the star power.
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I had the pleasure of spending a couple of weeks in Vienna last year in both August and December, where I learned about the beautiful and tragic Empress Elisabeth of Austria (1837-1898), considered by many to be the greatest beauty of her day. Like her later counterpart, Diana, Princess of Wales, Sisi as she was called was particularly unsuited for the rigors of the monarchy. Well educated and a superb horsewoman, she actually held modern views and despised the monarchy, dearly wishing her husband, Franz Joseph were not Emperor. This led to the unraveling of their marriage, and despite several children, Sisi began to travel incessantly throughout Europe, with rare stops in Vienna. Her major concerns were to preserve her legendary beauty and her eighteen inch waist, both of which she did so on a diet of dairy products from special cows which were constantly being brought to her. In her most famous portrait, painted in 1865 she is dressed in a gray blue gown with yards of silk, and her chestnut brown hair is adorned with diamond stars from the huge Viennese imperial collection. Like Diana, Sisi died a tragic death, being stabbed by a fanatical Italian anarchist while she was vacationing in Geneva.
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Hot pink neon pulsated over the catwalk and around the walls, as models stepped out from an arch of fully bloomed roses. One nearly fell, two others looked ready to faint - and no wonder given the weight of some of the dresses, rumored to tip the scales at 100 pounds.
Anyone who has ever been to Dior couture show knows exactly what to expect before it even begins, and each season there is little shock in the extravagance-ingenuity-decadence of each collection. Ask one of Galliano's friends, Tatiana Sorokko, who knew the designer in his down and out days in London, when he paid her for modeling work with shoes. "Fashion needs somebody like John to shake things all up," she said after the show.
And that is probably the key to his long-running success at Dior, as well as the explanation for the flack he has drawn from fashion editors over the years. But the real truth is that couture, as it was once known, no longer exists, and what has filled the vacuum is Galliano's magical show-stopping recipe.
Models crept down the steamy catwalk attired in what could only be described as coronation robes, gowns and vestments - crowns, jewels, orb and scepter as accessories - but the artistic point d'orgue was the technical wizardry of the world's most famed couture atelier. Crimson satin embroidered in gold lamé, dresses folded into mounds of brocade, velvet damask, mink slivers and ermine trimming all cried "VIVAT REGINA!" Emerald-green satin was sprayed with peacock feather embroidery and worn with an ecclesiastical -inspired cope trimmed in unctuous mink.
The quasi 19th century Austrian reference inspired by Empress Sisi gave way to a mix of baroque influences, combining to create a wardrobe worthy of a Cajun Queen from New Orleans, of the variety that Tennessee Williams once described as daintily holding a crystal vile of perfume to the nose while crying poisson. There was as much high camp as legitimate couture on display - which is the brilliance of Galliano.
The wedding dress of creamy whipped and folded chiffon, embroidered with silver lamé and rhinestones, carried with a rosary and prayer book, might give some royalty the vapors. But the Hollywood set, not to mention the future Mrs. Trump, were all most amused.
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