Oriel - Fashion

John Galliano         (1960 - )

Early life in Gibraltar, with Spanish parents and close proximity to Northern Africa, influenced John’s style. "I think all that – the souks, the markets, woven fabrics, the carpets, the smells, the herbs, the Mediterranean colour, is where my love of textiles comes from," Galliano has said.

After graduating with a first class degree in Fashion Design at Saint Martin’s School of Art, London, Galliano was given the opportunity to design for Brown’s of London, with great success there.

He was awarded British Designer of the Year in 1987, 1994 and 1995.

In the early 1990s Galliano moved to Paris, sleeping on friends floors and creating a show from a few bolts of black fabric and supermodels who modeled for friendship.  The show was a monumental success - John Galliano had sealed his reputation as one of the great designers of his time. 

By the mid-1990s, Galliano had reinvented the 1930s-line bias-cut dress and made it modern, as well as creating narrow, very feminine tailoring.   In 1995 he was installed as a chief designer at Givenchy, but to the French seemed like a young upstart.

Soon after he moved on to the  larger and wealthier house of Christian Dior, where today, he creates a dozen collections a year.

His love of theatre and femininity are central to his creations – "my role is to seduce" he has said and went as far as recreating some of Dior's period clothing for Madonna in the film Evita.

Fall Collection 2009

Inspired by the wastes of the Russian-Balkan folklore.

Oodles of embroidery and workmanship and a ton of research into folk costume had been lavished on the details of the pannier-hipped, full-skirted coats, balloon-sleeved peasant blouses, bodices, headdresses, and pompom-trimmed cross-laced boots.