John Galliano - Designer, Creative Director of Maison Margiela

What happened at Dior in 2007 is Robinson's death and Gaytten took his place. That's where difference of the runway collections of the two eras comes from
 
If I remember correctly, I heard a buyer talk about it on a panel when Raf joined Dior and the big question was if customers would adapt to his vision of a modern woman vs. what they were used to from the brand. She said that beyond, for example, the saddle bag and its seasonal variations, and the crazy logomania stuff from the early aughts, most ready-to-wear was a tough sell, because it was either the bias cut (party)dresses or the show-ideas merchandised into stuff for the older clientele (aka. printed twin sets, skirt suits etc.). Shoes were apparently also a big problem. Its interesting to look on resale sites for stuff from his era at the house - It's mostly quite safe, bourgeois looking blouses and pencil skirts, and not a lot of it.
Now that you mention it, whenever I try and shop for Dior pieces from his 2000's era, it's exactly as you described: loads of blouses and pencil skirts made out of the same fabric/prints as the zany runway pieces, simplified blazers, and tons of sheath dresses with little tuck and fold details.
 
What happened at Dior in 2007 is Robinson's death and Gaytten took his place. That's where difference of the runway collections of the two eras comes from
Not only.
Galliano received a lot of criticism after the FW2004 RTW collection. The season after, he did a very commercial collection. But internally, Arnault was displeased by the j’Adore Dior, logo stuff and all as it sold well and they feared that it would jeopardize the image of the house (even more than there were a lot of fakes).
It is known that as Dior is Arnault baby and wasn’t part of LVMH at the time, that Arnault was quite himself in the direction the house had to take. So they started what became the « back to basics » era that was coinciding with Galliano 10 years and the anniversary of Dior.
They cleaned the palette and madness with the resort show in NYC, then the SS2007 show in Paris.

Steven died after the FW RTW show but the strategy was already there. At that time they started to have more mature, serious celebrities as ambassadors: Sharon Stone, Monica Bellucci. They started to push the Lady Dior again (and gradually discontinued the successful Gaucho, Saddle and others bags from the previous).

Steven’s death had an impact on Galliano, his creativity but essentially, Dior was heading to a more conservative direction anyway.
 
Not only.
Galliano received a lot of criticism after the FW2004 RTW collection. The season after, he did a very commercial collection. But internally, Arnault was displeased by the j’Adore Dior, logo stuff and all as it sold well and they feared that it would jeopardize the image of the house (even more than there were a lot of fakes).
It is known that as Dior is Arnault baby and wasn’t part of LVMH at the time, that Arnault was quite himself in the direction the house had to take. So they started what became the « back to basics » era that was coinciding with Galliano 10 years and the anniversary of Dior.
They cleaned the palette and madness with the resort show in NYC, then the SS2007 show in Paris.

Steven died after the FW RTW show but the strategy was already there. At that time they started to have more mature, serious celebrities as ambassadors: Sharon Stone, Monica Bellucci. They started to push the Lady Dior again (and gradually discontinued the successful Gaucho, Saddle and others bags from the previous).

Steven’s death had an impact on Galliano, his creativity but essentially, Dior was heading to a more conservative direction anyway.
Pretty crazy to think that these were both ready-to-wear offerings from the same designer at the same house, just one season apart.

00010h-christian-dior-fall-2004-ready-to-wear-gisele-bundchen.jpg.jpeg 00010h-christian-dior-spring-2005-ready-to-wear-lindsay-ellingson.jpg.jpeg
 
Pretty crazy to think that these were both ready-to-wear offerings from the same designer at the same house, just one season apart.

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Weirdly FW2004 is my favorite RTW collection from Galliano at Dior (SS1999 comes just after) and SS 2005 is my least favorite. It’s just and endless trunk show of sections…

But tbh, I understand the criticism at the time. The Egyptian collection was pure extravaganza and there he goes with an extravaganza again with RTW and he doubled down with the Couture in July!

And to think that the Dior Rasta collection was the heavily marketed collection of that FW04 season, without being featured on the runway….John was doing way too much lol.
 
Before yall start screaming Dior.

i encourage you revisit some of those threads towards the end of his tenure there. He had nothing left to contribute to Dior then and doubt anything has changed.

Wonder what his next move will be. It would be nice for him to consult somewhere like he did with Oscar de la Renta.
 
I think the best outcome would be if he somehow managed to regain control of the Galliano brand. I don’t want to go back to Dior (or similar), he wouldn’t be able to handle the commercial demands of today’s landscape.
 

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