THE WORD ON GIVENCHY
John Galliano is asleep. And he’ll be that way for at least 24 hours, according to a friend, who said that the designer always takes to his bed for a full day after his show. This means that Galliano hasn’t been able to read his rave reviews in the British press, not to mention the enthusiastic ones in the usually positive French papers.
“Galliano controlled his eccentricities and presented a collection that was both exciting and contemporary,” exclaimed The Guardian. He “not only propelled Givenchy back into the limelight, but also gave the increasingly frail body of couture a vital injection of fresh blood.”
“What made the collection spectacular was that for the first time, Galliano’s monumental creativity was married to the breathtaking handiwork of a committed Parisian atelier,” declared The Daily Telegraph. According to The Independent, Galliano’s clothes “are a step forward for haute couture,” while The Daily Express dubbed him “the man of the moment.”
In Paris, Suzy Menkes slammed the collection on the front page of The International Herald Tribune. “John Galliano’s much-awaited show for Givenchy was a fashion moment that missed,” wrote Menkes. “For all its poetry and theater, the show did not propel haute couture into the next millennium or define a new image for the house.”
Janie Samet of the Figaro suggested, in her usual flowery way, that, “In fifty outfits, the heir to Hubert de Givenchy offered us a dream of a century of fashion history.” And Liberation called the show an “intoxicating and highly spiritual mise en scene.”