What It Seams To Me: A Fashion Blog

Clicking and clanking down the sea blue patent runway for John Galliano’s “fresh couture – restrained and refined” is a cocktail of fluff, bounce, and gravity defying architectural compositions which are showcased by flawlessly sleek models whose countenance looks almost artificial. Spectators, including myself, are raising heads and dropping their jaws over his refreshingly timely, yet sultry (and revealing below the waist) feminine masterpieces designed for Dior.

As the already dwindling economy continues to step down its ladder, those who could once freely indulge in couture in exchange for a couple thousand dollars now face a restricting budget. Thus, now is not the time to aim for a piece that’s excessively flamboyant because the consequence of owning a one hit wonder is a wound, too brutal to quickly heal, on your bank account. History repeats itself, especially the history of trends in fashion. Novelty trends are deeply buried in the forgotten soils of fashion’s past (and unfortunate amounts of money wasted in the consumption of these horrors), but the highly respected and beauty-inducing styles often resurrect decades after its prime – fresh outside of one’s predecessor’s closet.

Thankfully, these designs reminisce and modernly reconstruct the top styles of each decade from the twentieth century: ball gowns layered and wrapped in tulle, wasp waist, not-so-flapping flapper dress(which seem to be lacking the usual bead count), thigh high tiers, scalp sleek hairdos, glossy stockings, and countless adaptations of the hourglass silhouettes. The wasp waist in particular has recently exploded in the return of high waisted pencil jeans and 50s inspired, skin tight one-piece bathing suits, which Galliano used as a foundation to his revealing dresses. Though one would comment that a bathing suit veiled with a layer or two of tulle would be a lousy excuse for anything formal, Galliano’s couture proves that there are miracles. A hybrid between the 1920s spiral train and the flair of the Little Mermaid’s tail, the waist down portion of one particular dress swishes in a mesmerizing fashion. So mesmerizing, it’s a device that conjures onlookers to unconsciously swing their heads like a pendulum, observing the fine floral details in the free-flowing excess of the skirt and the complex pleats only a perfectionist could master. This dress reveals a super power of its own: its talent to unsuspectingly trance the eyes it captures and fixating their mind into complete admiration over its potentially reached sophistication.

If anything, the outlines of many of these pieces brings my mind back to the scene in My Fair Lady where at the Ascot Racecourse, Eliza Dolittle congregates with an elite bunch of elegantly dressed women in white, decked out in the most luxurious and feminine fabrics and cuts one could possibly think of – especially the asymmetrical lace tiers lightly sitting on its mummy-tight dress.

Many of these tiers look similar to an inverted flower, spilling out additional – transparent – lengths to prevent the outfit from looking scandalous. Some redefine the look of a modern, working women. One piece, plastered in black, binds the arm and chest with nothing but ruffles in the front, bundled up in what I assume will be the contemporary girdle which consists of not only the actual body-alterator itself, but thick petals shooting out of each possible side and redefining the way we look at a female’s hips.

To see all this is refreshing to me, as I fear the thought of quickly jumping into a pair of crotch-dropped pants, unfitting for my petite figure. I admire the most sophisticated styles of the past, and Galliano implants this sudden nostalgia back into me. With styles like these slowly dominating the streets, as well as the sudden wave of conservative sophistication, the future looks bright as the designer’s of tomorrow are driven towards the mission to bring out all the beauty a women could extract.

To see more images from the slideshow, click here.

Images by: allesandro Lucione for Style.com
Source: style.com