Critics agreed John Galliano’s spring 2010 show in Paris yesterday was staggeringly beautiful. Bubbles fell from the ceiling and popped into puffs of vapor. The runway was lit with red laser lights, creating a tunnel effect much like his also staggeringly beautiful fall 2009 show. This was Galliano’s version of Sunset Boulevard (dialogue from the 1950 movie opened the show). “It came from a research trip to L.A.,” Galliano told Style.com. “I went around the old houses of Hollywood and imagined how stars like Tallulah Bankhead, Lillian Gish, and Mary Pickford lived.” Spring 2010’s ubiquitous boudoir feel was present here, too, in sheer dresses and lace insets. The collection also included khaki jackets, beaded trenches, and skinny belted blazers.
However, the lovely vapor bubbles and dresses were overshadowed by an “infuriating” hour-long wait. Galliano had the unfortunate time slot of 8:30 p.m. on the second to last day of the entire season — and a torrential downpour had the nerve to occur right before his show.
Stunning.Photo: Imaxtree
Having attended shows almost every day all day for the past four weeks, the fashion flock is burning out, Telegraph’s Hilary Alexander most definitely included:
[Galliano] appeared to have been pushed into using the ghastly Halle Freyssinet as a location; no one in their right mind would willingly choose to show in this unlovely, dank, cold warehouse, near an underpass, in the 13th arrondissement, a good 30-40 minutes drive from the centre of town.
She adds that rehearsal started when guests began to arrive. Attendees had to wait outside in the downpour, while only a few found shelter under the foyer.
Among the slightly-drenched; a furious Carine Roitfeld, editor-in-chief of French Vogue. “I wait all this time in the rain and you can’t even give me a glass of water,” she stormed at a hapless PR, who would have been better off with a bucket than a clipboard — as the roof had started leaking.
Oh no — people got wet! Thank goodness celebrities aren’t people, because those in attendance looked happy, dry, and generally splendid! They included Prince (“fresh as a daisy and as dry as a bone”), Russell Brand (“parachuted in?”), and Katy Perry (“the hem of her trailing, pink carpet gown, showed not a touch of damp”). We bet that if Anna Wintour had been there, she’d have been dry, too.
See a complete runway slideshow of John Galliano’s spring 2010 collection.
Paris Fashion Week: John Galliano [Telegraph UK]