John Galliano: Spring 2009 Ready-to-Wear

[bright upbeat music]

I don t know him personally,

but I know his clothes personally.

And I love his madness.

So, if I come to see one thing,

I love it to be him.

[marching band music]

This is my first class ticket to Galliano land.

And when I get there,

I m gonna find out that the presiding spirit

is the 18th century illustrator, James Gillray,

whose savage wit and biting caricatures are a

perfect counterpart to Galliano s own fashion sensibility.

I mean, as far as the hats were concerned,

you know, we did all those British things.

You know, there was a guardsman s hat,

Beefeater hat.

We didn t do one with a pigeon.

I was tempted, but John said, No. [laughs]

[magical, fairy tail music]

I went to the London Maritime Museum.

And I chanced upon these beautiful aquarelles,

these sketches by James Gillray, a great satirist.

Who had a keen eye on fashion

And evoked these tremendous silhouettes in his sketches.

And then I love the contrast of the shoes,

I d found an inspiration from Brancusi.

[magical, fairy tale music]

[Tim] So Peter, as an artist,

when you see a fashion production like that,

what s your first reaction?

See all those models coming out

with the incredible headdresses?

It s just the most extraordinary thing

I ve ever seen, I think.

[Tim] I didn t expect to see a

collection walking into that set

so straightforward pretty.

I actually don t think the clothes

were more straightforward.

I think they were low key.

But actually when you saw the detailing

and how beautifully all the cuts were,

I think it was the subtlety in the clothes

which then needed to have that Galliano s

supercharged glamor,

which came from the shoes and the hats.

Fantastic shoes.

They look like a part of a, of a car

out of a body shop with these incredible colors

and combination of shapes.

He could have gone much madder.

What he offered now, it s just a series of

ultimately beautiful dresses for summer.

[Tim] I saw quite a lot of you in there.

I see things that I m dying to wear.

All this diaphanous, nearly naked,

whisper of a dress with sparkles on it.

It all speaks to me.

It makes me want to dress like his girls.

Could be wearing bigger feathers.

This feather is not big enough.

I ve just decided.

The clothes look like fairy dresses.

Very flattering, very, very sexy, very innocent.

Kind of like that tongue in cheek.

[Tim] The merriment of Gillray is the most

savage satire that you ll ever see.

Although they re very beautiful,

There is a certain cruelty to his images

in the way he recorded the effects

of both economics and politics on fashion.

Exaggeration of the civilized.

And that is something that I will always be inspired by.