Courting Perfection.(Interview)

Courting Perfection

He's celebrating two anniversaries for Dior and a couple bravura collections. Why John Galliano is still bringing down the house. By Frances Little

When John Galliano was asked to head up design at Christian Dior a decade ago, Dior's New Look -- a postwar bombshell of wasp waists and billowing skirts -- had cycled through enough new, newer, newest new looks to leave a big, fat opening for a Spanish-bred, British-trained upstart from Gibraltar. Galliano captured the essence of Dior right off. He captured the tailoring -- bias cuts, origami folds, intricate appliques. He captured the drama -- Madame Butterfly, French waifs, '20s sirens. He captured the continuity -- archival couture colors and '40s hourglass silhouettes. And now, in the venerable French fashion institution's sixtieth year, he's back to his old "excess is elegance" kinds of tricks. "It felt like time -- perhaps it was the anniversary, perhaps just fate -- to return to romantic roots," Galliano says. And so there are tornados of ruffles spiraling around a fuchsia gown; a lavishly adorned evening suit with a train; a narrow ivory dress that seems to engulf the body in petals. "I like designs that make you go 'wow' -- the logo, the clochard, the geisha, the showstoppers, the Wonder Woman." They come at a cost, those jeweled sleeves and boned underpinnings. "Each piece has had every stitch, every button, every fabric cut and color agonized over to make sure it's perfect for the Dior woman," says the man known for impeccable bias-cut gowns and impossibly ornate accessories -- even a hat festooned with Coca-Cola cans. But then, Galliano is not one to deny his public -- or his muse. "The woman on the street in Dior is my motivation and inspiration," he says. "She has style, attitude, conviction, serenity and, above all, she knows all the rules and she breaks them." The same could ...