Galliano's Dior

John Galliano is unconventional to the hilt. His designs may seem scandalous to some. But so what? His house, Christian Dior, has been making money riding on the man's creative cocktail of Picasso and punk and poverty, writes GAUTAMAN BHASKARAN.

SOMEONE said sometime ago that "Dior really rocks". Someone else said that its designer, John Galliano, "is a mad boy". Well, Dior swings. And, well, Galliano, can be crazy. The rock-and-craze combo may be real, but it is one interpretation of the Parisian fashion house and its creator.

Galliano says that people just do not give him a chance. They judge him before they know the full story. "Nobody has the right to tell me what I should be inspired by or not," he hisses out.

But even after watching the bevy of beauties sporting Galliano's entire range of a (repeat "a") collection, it is quite hard to tell what motivated him to design this, this and this or what exactly is the meaning behind his "madness".

After his last couture parade a few months ago, if there was confusion, there was also shock and disbelief, particularly at the X-rated sound track in his show. Call it vulgar or vanity, his trash punk styling also produced a sense of elated exuberance.

Galliano explains that the idea for these designs came to him when he was holidaying in the south of France. "I was attracted by the work of Picasso and other painters. I was amazed to find how historical events moved them."

The Dior man was excited. "We have to do things that get us on a high. We have to seek new avenues. They may be naive. They may be stupid. But to me and my team, they are like oxygen."

Sure enough, Galliano's performance forced even the most cynical to sport a smile. For it was funny. The line-up of exotic Freudian deviants, the twisted Edwardian ladies, handcuffed bridegrooms, French maids, judges, nuns, sailors and slaves made up the catwalk's motley group.

Some, of course, found them outrageous. But Galliano could not care less. "At the end of the day, we are in business, and we are doing incredibly well," is all that he had to tell critics.

Dior's sales figures have been steadily climbing at a time when those of some others have been diving. Hemant Sagar, the only Indian couturier, and his fashion house in Paris, for instance, have closed down, declared bankrupt. No such tragedy for Galliano and his large citadel. For the first half of 2000, Dior's couture revenues were 42 per cent higher than what they were for the same period in 1999. Galliano's mantra is simple: silence all the moans with success.

And this has come from several directions. The commercial high point of his saddle bag, one of the first accessories to have been designed and now a mainstay of the Dior handbag line. Equally gratifying has been the children's wear and toys. Galliano's street stuff that strips the house of its ladylike sophistication has also been hot.

Galliano has always hit the headlines. Right from the beginning when his graduation collection won him rave reviews, his outfits have attracted attention, good or bad. The thing about this is that he gets noticed. The attention he draws is divided: some say he has earned a place in fashion history, others call his stuff silly and fancy.

The designer gets what he wants, though. He succeeds in provoking thought, although what stimulates him is not quite this. What drives him to jump out of his bed every morning is the dream of dressing up beautiful women, right from the scratch.

Galliano has earned notoriety in other ways. One, for wearing personal clothes that keep in tune with his latest collection. It can be a tail coat or a top hat or ... "The way I look is always a part of the creative process," he explains.

Finally, what was his last show, held in Paris a few months ago, all about ? He got "male beauties" to sashay. They were draped in football shirts, golden jockey straps and they wore crowns of fairy lights. To quote one magazine, "they looked a cross between David Beckham and Jesus Christ".

The latest collection featured clothes held together with packing tape. It had a trailer-park-trash theme.

Last year, his theme centred on poverty and kinky sex. "When some can find inspiration in the rich, why cannot I in the poor and the homeless?" argues Galliano. "In any case, I have quadrupled sales," he beams a smile.

It is infectious. There are some who swear by him. Nicole Kidman is one. Galliano is said to have caressed her sorrow (of having to part with longtime husband, Tom Cruise) away at Cannes this year, when her film, "Moulin Rouge" cancanned on the opening night.

She wore his creation, and seemed radiantly happy, though to my rather conservative-about-clothes mind, Nicole's costume appeared bizarre. But that is the price you pay for getting noticed, the Dior Galliano way.

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