Christian Dior by John Galliano blue cashmere wool and fox fur coat, fw 1998
View Similar Items
Christian Dior by John Galliano blue cashmere wool and fox fur coat, fw 1998
About the Item
- Designer:
- Brand:
- Dimensions:Marked Size: FR 38 - UK 10 - US 6 (EU)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Seller Location:London, GB
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU140215636832
John Galliano for Christian Dior
Known for introducing rich theatricality and memorable fashion spectacles to the runway, John Galliano has enjoyed a singular career. The audacious British designer has garnered universal acclaim for genre-breaking collections not only at his eponymous label but also for Christian Dior.
From his embroidered absinthe-green Oscars gown for actress Nicole Kidman to the iconic sleeveless newspaper-print dress that Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw made famous, Galliano’s intricate and multifaceted work is reliably newsworthy, drawing on history as often as it embodies a fresh and forward-looking sensibility, and over the years the designer has helped shape an ever-broadening new legion of enthusiasts for Parisian couture.
Born in Gibraltar but raised in South London by strict Roman Catholic working-class parents, Galliano attended the all-boys Church of England grammar school, where his flamboyance and interest in art attracted the attention of bullies. Eventually, Galliano ended up at the prestigious design and art school Central Saint Martins College (then called Saint Martin’s School of Art), where fellow British designers Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen also trained.
Galliano flourished at Central Saint Martins. While a student, he worked in the costume department at the National Theatre in London. His graduate collection in 1984, dubbed “Les Incroyables” and named for post–French Revolution fashion lovers, was modeled by close friends of his and earned a standing ovation. The line ended up in the storefront windows of London luxury boutique Brown’s on South Molton Street, and Galliano’s first official collection — after he graduated — debuted at Paris Fashion Week in 1989.
In the early 1990s, Galliano’s relationship with his financial backer, Plein Sud’s Faycal Amor, ended, and by 1994, he was broke and sleeping on the floor of a friend’s apartment. Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour and then-Vanity Fair editor André Leon Talley stepped in and introduced the budding designer to Portuguese socialite and fashion patron São Schlumberger and others. At Schlumberger’s Hôtel Particulier, Galliano’s shows became the stuff of fashion legend. His collection, a blend of Japanese modernist style as well as nostalgia for Art Deco and 1940s’ tailoring, earned raves in glossy magazines and garnered the attention of Princess Diana, Madonna and other fashion luminaries.
Once the Galliano name was well known among the world’s most stylish set, the chairperson of LVMH, Bernard Arnault, appointed Galliano head designer of French fashion house Givenchy. One year later, in 1996, LVMH moved him to the design team at Dior. In just eight weeks, Galliano produced 50 looks for Dior Haute Couture’s brilliant Spring/Summer 1997 Maasai collection and would ultimately design a mind-boggling eight collections a year for the storied French fashion house until 2011. Today, Galliano is the creative director of Maison Margiela.
Shop vintage and contemporary John Galliano for Christian Dior evening dresses and gowns, shoes, handbags and other clothing and accessories on 1stDibs.
Christian Dior
When Christian Dior launched his couture house, in 1946, he wanted nothing less than to make “an elegant woman more beautiful and a beautiful woman more elegant.” He succeeded, and in doing so the visionary designer altered the landscape of 20th century fashion.
Dior was born in Granville, on the Normandy coast, in 1905. His prosperous haute bourgeois parents wanted him to become a diplomat despite his interest in art and architecture. However, they agreed to bankroll an art gallery, which Dior opened in 1928 in Paris with a friend.
This was the start of Dior’s rise in the city’s creative milieu, where he befriended Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau. After seven years as an art dealer, Dior retrained as a fashion illustrator, eventually landing a job as a fashion designer for Robert Piguet, and in 1941, following a year of military service, he joined the house of Lucien Lelong. Just five years later, with the backing of industrialist Marcel Boussac, the ascendant Dior established his own fashion house, at 30 avenue Montaigne in Paris.
Just two years after the end of World War II, the fashion crowd and the moribund haute couture industry were yearning, comme tout Paris, for security and prosperity, desperate to discard the drab, sexless, utilitarian garb imposed by wartime deprivation. They needed to dream anew.
And Dior delivered: He designed a collection for a bright, optimistic future. “It’s quite a revolution, dear Christian!” exclaimed Carmel Snow, the prescient American editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar, famously proclaiming, “Your dresses have such a new look.” The press ran with the description, christening Dior’s debut Spring/Summer haute couture collection the New Look. “God help those who bought before they saw Dior,” said Snow. “This changes everything.”
Dior’s collection definitively declared that opulence, luxury and femininity were in. His skirts could have 40-meter-circumference hems, and outfits could weigh up to 60 pounds. They were cut and shaped like architecture, on strong foundations that molded women and “freed them from nature,” Dior said. Rather than rationing, his ladies wanted reams of fabric and 19-inch waists enforced by wire corsets, and the fashion world concurred. The debut got a standing ovation.
In the subsequent decade, Paris ruled as the undisputed fashion capital of the world, and Christian Dior reigned as its king. With the luxuriously full skirts of his New Look, suits and his drop-dead gorgeous evening dresses and ball gowns worthy of any princess, Dior gave women the gift of glamour they’d lost in the miserable years of war.
On 1stDibs, find an exquisite range of vintage Christian Dior clothing, jewelry, handbags and other items.
- Dolce & Gabbana mauve mesh evening coat dress with floral motifs, ss 1998By Dolce & GabbanaLocated in London, GB▪ Dolce & Gabbana mauve mesh evening coat dress ▪ 66% Cotton, 34% Nylon ▪ Hand-sewn three-dimensional floral motifs ▪ Double breasted ▪ Metal hook and snap button fastenings ▪ Stan...Category
1990s Italian Evening Dresses and Gowns
- Dolce & Gabbana ivory silk hand-painted kimono dress coat, fw 1998By Dolce & GabbanaLocated in London, GB▪ Dolce & Gabbana ivory kimono dress coat ▪ 65% Silk, 35% Nylon ▪ Hand-painted design of flowers and birds ▪ Black silk lining ▪ IT 44 - FR 40 - UK 12 ...Category
1990s Italian Coats and Outerwear
- Jean Paul Gaultier sheepskin and fox fur coat dress, fw 2006By Jean Paul GaultierLocated in London, GB▪ Jean Paul Gaultier sheepskin and fox fur coat dress ▪ Sheepskin bodice with shearling trim ▪ Full a-line skirt made up of vertically cut strips of fox fur ▪ Front zip fastening ▪ ...Category
Early 2000s French Coats and Outerwear
- Dolce & Gabbana crystal embellished metallic silk brocade evening coat, ss 2000By Dolce & GabbanaLocated in London, GB▪ Dolce & Gabbana evening coat ▪ Sold by One of a Kind Archive ▪ Constructed from metallic turquoise and purple silk brocade ▪ Heavily embellished with multicoloured crystals, beads...Category
Early 2000s Italian Coats and Outerwear
- Chanel by Karl Lagerfeld cream mohair wool coat and dress ensemble, fw 1998By Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld for ChanelLocated in London, GB▪ Chanel cream mohair wool coat and dress ensemble ▪ Designed by Karl Lagerfeld ▪ Oversized open-front coat with matching belt ▪ Large notched lapels ▪ Built-in shoulder pads ▪ ...Category
1990s French Coats and Outerwear
- Christian Dior by John Galliano black lurex evening dress and coat, ss 1999By John Galliano for Christian Dior, Christian DiorLocated in London, GB▪ Christian Dior evening dress and coat ensemble ▪ Designed by John Galliano ▪ Sold by One of a Kind Archive ▪ Dress comprises a skirt and top constructed from metallic black lurex jersey with sheer diamond pattern ▪ Double shoulder straps with silver beads ▪ Evening coat constructed from black waxed cotton ▪ 2 large ties at the back fasten with a large knot ▪ Curved sleeves with inseam slits ▪ Balloon hem...Category
1990s French Evening Dresses and Gowns
- Jean Paul Gaultier Cyberbaba Cyberdot Optical Illusion 1995 Coat Jacket DressBy Jean Paul GaultierLocated in PARIS, FRIconic Cyberbaba dress by Jean Paul Gaultier! From the Autumn/Winter 1995 Collection! For sale is an iconic and rare Jean Paul Gaultier Cyberdot Quilted Dress from his Autumn-Winter 1995 collection that has been inspired by the 1979 film 'Mad Max' and Victor Vasarely. Made of quilted wool/nylon fabric, the computer-generated spot pattern reflect the contours of the female body, with spot-print allover. It can be worn as a dress or a coat/sweater. Museum piece! The same dress is displayed in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. You can find it in its online collection. Description from the MET`s archivum: Jean Paul Gaultier's collection "Femmes Amazone" was accessorized, according to Women's Wear Daily, with "whips and sundry other Mad Max accessories." His inspiration, ostensibly, was the mythic Amazon and the contemporary equestrian. This dress is a version of the body-conscious sheathes he showed in the runway presentation under sweeping coats. With an ombréed and graduated dot pattern, Gaultier creates the illusion of a shadowed trompe l'oeil body wearing a bikini. The essential modesty of the padded and quilted sweater dress is subverted by this overprinted body, which emerges like an X ray, and by Gaultier's exploitation of the stretch of the synthetic knit to fit the dress like a second skin. Gaultier makes one of his whimsical references to the pop culture of his childhood in rendering the "itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini" of Brian Hyland's 1960 hit single. The pattern are worn by a lot of celebrites, such as Kim Kardashian, Iggy Azalea, Cardi B...Category
1990s Italian Evening Dresses
- Opulent Mocha Brown Brocade Evening Coat c 1960sLocated in University City, MOOpulent mocha brown brocade evening coat by Montaldo's c 1960s The elegant opera coat is designed with thick structured brocade panels The luminous mocha brown brocade fabric is illu...Category
1960s American Opera Coats
$945 Sale Price21% Off - Dolce Gabbana Herringbone Wool CoatBy Dolce & GabbanaLocated in Beverly Hills, CA90s Dolce Gabbana Herringbone wool coat lined in silk. fit size 4/6. Marked size 42 italianCategory
Early 2000s Italian Evening Gowns
- Vintage Caftan Sleeveless Black with Pink Embroidered, ca. 1980sLocated in North Hollywood, CAAmazing vintage handmade sleeveless caftan, black color with pink rim threads. Circa 1980's. The kaftan is embroidered and embellished entirely by hand. This authentic caftan has b...Category
1980s Moroccan Caftans
$520 Sale Price20% Off - Moroccan Damask Metallic Floral Kaftan Fortuny Style CoatLocated in North Hollywood, CAStunning and elegant Moroccan caftan with silver metallic Moorish floral damask brocade. Handcrafted Moroccan kaftan, coat, hand made by Moroccan fashion designer in Morocco great to...Category
1980s Moroccan Caftans
$1,200 Sale Price20% Off - Pleats Please By Issey Miyake Limited Guest Artist Cai Guo-Qiang Jacket DressBy Issey MiyakeLocated in PARIS, FRA rare and coveted Pleats Please by Issey Miyake dress from the collaboration with Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang, Guest Artist Series No. 4, 1998. It can be worn as a dress or a jacket. The mind-boggling process of creating the design by sprinkling gunpowder onto the patterns and evoking a detonation is shown in the YouTube video above (an even more prolonged and more detailed version here). Asymmetrical cut, pleated throughout. Bat look shoulders and sleeves! 100% polyester. Made in Japan. A dress of this series is held by the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute archives. They state: "Miyake launched the Pleats Please Guest Artist Series in 1996. For the fourth collaboration in the series, Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang used gunpowder explosions to burn images of dragons, a Chinese symbol for life, onto a group of finished white garments. To produce the line, Miyake adjusted the images for printing on flat fabric before cutting, sewing, and pleating." Kerry Taylor...Category
1980s Evening Dresses
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
How John Galliano Caused Fashion Chaos around the Globe
The visionary designer epitomizes the pleasures and perils of irrepressible creative genius.
This Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen Ensemble Is Part Zsa Zsa Gabor, Part ‘Blade Runner’
As Burton steps away from the brand, it’s a fitting time to revisit one of her visionary designs.