Blood stains, skeletons at dramatic Dior collection with John Galliano who sent out his models in skirts splashed with fake blood and painted skeletons, with crosses round their necks, to the sound of whips and clanking chains in a dramatic opening to Paris fashion week.
"Red is the new libertine ... Dior is the new erotica", read the blood-red information sheet handed out at Christian Dior's spring-summer 2006 haute couture collection.
The models had bleached white hair and dark rims painted round their eyes.
One had 1789 tattooed on her neck, the year of the French revolution. Another wore a dress with a huge skirt stamped with the revolutionary slogan "liberte, egalite and fraternite".
The British designer appeared at the end of the show, set in a tent bathed in red at the Paris polo club, dressed in black leather and brandishing a fencing sword.
While Galliano's dramatic haute couture creations may be worn less by red-carpet clients than those of some other designers, his ideas are seen as trend-setters and are at the cutting edge of fashion.
Several outfits were see-through or revealing to show off the structure of the dresses and the detailed embroidery which take skilled French fashion workers days to sew and stitch.
The drama of Dior contrasted with the red carpet glamour at Giorgio Armani's Prive collection, the first show of the day.
"What I wanted to do was make women beautiful in front of a mirror," Armani told Reuters after the show.
Posted by Constance Wherrity on January 24, 2006 2:27 PM
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