John Galliano, is that you?

Does anyone else have a better reaction to this 29 year old John Galliano? From here to where you are today, the transformation has indeed been GARGANTUAN!

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Happy Birthday, John Galliano!

Dear John,

You will always be my inspiration! Have a great day!

-XOXO

P.S: John's birthday is tomorrow.

1 more day to go...

Dear John,

Did you know of those oxygen-blast facials that make you glow the way you do?

Did you know that you are the only one to inspire me enough to put a pencil to paper?

Did you know of the sleepless night I spent sketching you?

Did you know that you are almost there...

-XOXO

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2 more days to go...

Dear John,

Did you know of the times you used to frequent Victoria & Albert Museum?

Did you know of the frenzied crowd that wanted to model for your maiden collection 'Les Incroyables' ?

Did you know that you liked your water spiked with lemon?

Did you know that there are 2 more days to go...

-XOXO

Image Source:www.catwalking.com

3 more days to go...

Dear John,

Did you know that you played the dhol in Rajasthan?

Did you know that you exchanged your Levi's jacket with a Sherpa boy?

Did you know that you say "Wicked" like no one else?

Did you know that there are 3 more days to go...

-XOXO

Image Source:www.catwalking.com

4 more days to go...

Dear John,

Did you know as a little boy you danced flamingo on the kitchen table?

Did you know of the wafting aromas that filled the souks you passed through in Gibraltar?

Did you know of those cheerless cold mornings that saw you jogging by the Seine river?

Did you know that there are 4 more days to go...

-XOXO

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5 more days to go...

Dear John,

Did you know that the mean ones tried to dismiss you off as a mere plumber's son?

Did you know that you are mentioned in "Last of the Breed (Lovely 2)", Peter Sarstedt's sequel to "Where do you go to (my lovely)?" ?

Did you know that you are resilient enough to stage your fashion show just three days after your father's death?

Did you know there are 5 more days to go...

-XOXO


Image Source:www.catwalking.com

6 more days to go...

Dear John,

Did you know that your teacher at school pulsing your creativity encouraged you to become a designer?

Did you know about the endless hours you spent sketching at the library?

Did you know that you are a self made man?

Did you know that there are 6 more days to go...

-XOXO


Image Source:www.catwalking.com

7 more days to go...

Dear John,

Did you know that in a week's time you would have completed 49 glorious years of fantasy spinning on this planet?

Did you know that you have come a long way from the days of Bunsen burner and baked beans, rusted keys and bales of black cloth?

Did you know that there are seven more days to go....

-XOXO


Image Source:www.catwalking.com

Red Red Lips!

First came the skirts and now its the red lips and nails, what would Marc Jacobs' next step embracing femininity be? Is he musing "Oh, how I wish I had some red wine to go with my cosmetic flight of fancy?"

More importantly, is this photo worth $80 and if you decide to buy these cosmetics from Nars what is Marc Jacobs influence in your decision ?

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John Galliano embarks on a crime cracking spree!

The inspiration was Film Nior and the models glided on the runway in delicate dresses in bright colors and laced silken lingerie, the show being a modest sister of Dior's Haute Couture version which we witnessed a few months back! But the look that held me in awe was John Galliano entering the runway as a detective lurking in a spooky corner whose dark silhouette ominously looking out for trouble and then lo behold the lights are on John and we see him dressed in a nude trench coat and black trousers looking every bit the Sherlock Holmes he plays and seeing him take his final bow at the end of the runway with an enigmatic "I-know-it-all" look left me exclaiming "Monsieur Detective my vanity case is missing, will ye come home and solve the case of my stolen vanity...?

Here's the drama as it unfolded on the runway of Christian Dior's Spring 2010 RTW fashion show...

First the shadow figure...

Then the MAN

And finally the killer look...

As Jim Morrison once sang, This is the End, Beautiful Friend...

P.S: John Galliano's look was actually inspired by Humphrey Bogart's movie character (shown below) , I likened him to Sherlock Holmes for the similarity of the role played (namely detective) and not the look.

Image Source:www.catwalking.com www.movies.yahoo.com

John Galliano, plays the Incroyable!

John Galliano attended the inauguration of the exhibition "Tyen:30 Years of Creation" at the Palais de Tokyo Museum dressed as a Muscadin(Incroyable).It cannot be more apt that in dressing for an event commemorating Tyen's(the creative director of cosmetics at Dior who also had shot innumerable fashion and beauty campaigns for Dior) work, he went all the way back by 25 years to slip into his first creation, namely Les Incroyables.Maybe he is also drawing parallels between the turbulent times of today and those that existed post French Revolution in 1790s when all forms of ornateness in dressing were scorned at and the Incroyables dressed in a manner reflecting that sentiment! Talk about thoughtful dressing and see who comes to your mind first!

Image Source:www.zimbio.com

Rihanna does a Goth!

Above:Rihanna attending Fashion's Night Out

If Maison Martin Margiela's mono-lens sunglass was a bit on the edgier side, what would you say to Rihanna's spiked blinders? I agree Fashion's Night Out had the entire New York city brightly lit but was the city this blinding? And whats with those super spiked earrings and that bracelet piercing right through her flesh (see picture below), not to forget the black gloves with extreme black claws? If recession made it tough to afford body guards then maybe its not a very bad strategy! As for those blinders, well Rihanna seems to believe in the adage that appearances can be deceptive and decided to sense fashion and not get deceived by the brightly lit stores and the huge posters trumpeting the event! And with those spiky spikes would anyone dare to touch those blinders?

To muse, would you do an extreme Goth? Well she's a singer and all that, so its understandable that the need to grab attention and stand out could play an important part in her wardrobe choices.Apart from that can you give a thumbs up to this look? Eccentricity for eccentricity's sake or avant garde fashion? Do let me know.

Above:Rihanna attending World of Giuseppe Zanotti on Fashion's Night Out

Image Source:www.zimbio.com

To Shop or Not, a lesson from the Fashion God!

If the fashion folks are to be believed, the biggest dilemma assailing mankind today seems to be the question of "whether to shop or not"!From a time when wearing the same clothes more than once used to be deemed as the biggest fashion faux pas anyone living on the planet could commit, to seeing Marc Jacobs attending two events back to back (namely the screening of Inglourious Basterds and the September Issue) in practically the same outfit, excepting his shoes, only reflects the reality of the situation we are in! If a fashion God could repeat his clothes I guess we all need to keep the plastic where it belongs (in the wallet) and start "shopping" our closets instead! Hope Anna isn't listening, don't want to throw a damp towel on her Fashion's Night Out plans, that is supposed to encourage shopping!

Image Source:www.zimbio.com

Why Karl wears the suit and Marc the skirt!

The very people who bring variety into the closets of millions choose to be frugal in their own dressing choices.Why so?Is it because its economical(pun intended), they are doing clothes 24*7 that the very thought of putting one on themselves gives them a great repulsion or is it because the fashion gods cannot afford to commit a fashion faux pas, that they have stuck to extremely narrow choices of dressing?Despite a fertile imagination churning implausible reasons, the ultimate knock off might be a rather boring and contrived one, much like their dressing.

So it goes like this.Its not everyday that the gods descend from their thrones to offer a glimpse of their superior self to the mere mortals!And when that rare occasion happens, the mortals have to recognise their gods in a fleeting second, before the gods disappear.How do the mortals do that? Because the gods are identifiable by their unique style which no mortal would dare to copy(imagine yourself walking on the beach in a suit or going to the movies in a skirt) !

Maybe this phenomenon can be called as "image management"! Just the way one cannot think of Chanel without the interlocking Cs, so cannot one separate Karl from his suit!Quick recall factor after all matters, otherwise Karl would never be snapped walking in Saint Tropez, and even if he were, there would always linger in the minds of the mortals a nagging doubt whether it was their God or some impostor! And ya as for Marc, poor Marc he cannot do the suit(you know why) and so he decided to wear the skirt or should I be polite and say kilt?

If anyone knows a better reason, please do keep me informed!

Image Source:www.zimbio.com

Karl Lagerfeld in Saint Tropez, as smug as ever!

Is Karl Lagerfeld on a vacation in Saint Tropez or walking the runway taking the customary bow at the end of another Chanel show? Frankly I couldn't tell ! Why the runway appearance in real life? Wouldn't some casual dressing in the form of flip flops, t-shirts, shorts etc suit the Saint Tropez mood? Just wondering...

Image Source:www.zimbio.com

What's in your bag?

What seems to be an innocuous question, seemingly doesn't evoke a straight forward reply, at least not when subjected to the wild imagination of John Galliano!! John plays doubting Thomas and adds a naughty twist as to the contents of a women's bag to an extent that one almost believes the bag to be a holder of sinister secrets which her better half would certainly regret to chance upon!! He muses "It is part of their charm, their secret weapon. Who knows what’s in there — keys, wallet, phone. That is all to be expected. Who’s to say what door that spare key opens; why she has her passport tucked in when she’s only going up the road and whose phone number she has scrawled on the back of an envelope . . . I love the unknown — and the what might be.”

If John is to be believed, then its not just good manners that should hinder a man from opening a woman's, especially his woman's bag! Well as for the contents of my bag, all I can say is that if John did peep in he would be very disappointed, for spare keys he would certainly find that to his utter dismay opens only my closet, the passport tucked in, serving as a mere identity proof and as for the number scribbled on a decrepit paper and peeping out of the bag's inner pocket, well that just belongs to an old man who sells fruits in Bastille, whom I promised to call to ascertain whether the kiwis that I had so badly wanted for so long have finally arrived.

So whatever is in there, we have a convincing explanation for it all, and if men do put us through fire by their uncouth act of demanding an explanation for each of the precious possessions in our bag, we would emerge a saint, unscathed!! And John, just a word of advice, please look for your Hitchcokian mystery elsewhere!!

Image Source:www.style.com

John Galliano and his muse...

Costume Institute Gala held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, saw a galaxy of designers walk the Red Carpet with their model "dates" to deliberate the "Model As Muse" theme.Seen here is John Galliano, dressed in a shimmering grey suit with draw pants and silvery shoes giving it a powered effect, with his "date" Marion Cotillard(she being the current brand ambassador for Christian Dior made her the obvious choice to accompany John).The event on the whole drew varied reactions; while some decried it as a vulgar display of ostentatious luxury given the state of the economy others were too embroiled in "Who wore what" or rather "Who should have worn what" debates.The event had its share of controversies in the form of Azzedine Alaïa's exclusion from it which snowballed into his muses Stephanie Seymour and Naomi Campbell skipping it as a mark of protest!! Do we feel the hand of Anna Wintour somewhere? And finally, $7500 would have made you part of the guest list and an even more generous $250,000 would have seen you share the dinner table with the fashion gods!!

Image Source:www.zimbio.com

Marc Jacob says...

“I like this ritual of being in the bathroom, using skincare products…choosing what skirt to wear.”

And we all thought that only girls are fussy dressers!!

Image Source:www.style.com

John Galliano's Fall 2010 Inspiration

After John Galliano's journey through the Silk route and his brief flirtation with Russia, its only so natural for the curiously inclined to wonder where his imagination will land him next? And the answer is the once magical exotic land of snake charmers, elephant mahouts which had now transformed itself into a receptacle of "outsourced" jobs.With a population close to a billion plus and the entire bourgeois' aspiration squaring on a career in information technology as a passport to a five figure salary, its only so natural that software jobs come to India by the millions.Without further digression from the topic, the current economic downturn in the US and Europe black holing all spending habits, its the emerging markets like China and India that hold sway for the luxury markets.The new emerging rich of India cannot wait to flaunt their ever more newly acquired wealth.

In addition to the economic compulsions, India is a land of diversity with as many as two dozen spoken languages, each state having its unique culture, cuisine and clothes.So whether its the Kancheepuram silks of Tamil Nadu, the mundus of Kerala, the chikan embroideries of Lucknow or the cotton sarees of Bengal, there is never a dearth for design inspiration and as for translating all these to the runway, who else but John Galliano, with his expansive imagination, can do better justice?

Image source:www.wwd.com