The king of fashion and creativity has been on the path to running his own empire since he was young. Born Juan Carlos Antonio Galliano Guillén to a Gibraltarian father and a Spanish mother. He has been deeply influenced by a brief stint during childhood of living in Spain. “I think all that-the souks, the markets, woven fabrics, the carpets, the smells, the herbs, the Mediterranean color, is where my love of textiles comes from,” Galliano has said. At age six his family moved to Streatham in London and then to Dulwich, where they still reside. After high school, Galliano attended St. Martin’s Collage of Art and Design. He graduated with honors in 1984.
His graduation project, called Les Incroyables, put Galliano on the map and in the spotlight. This collection came about from his work as a dresser at the National Theatre in London on a show called Danton. The collection was filled with deconstructed pieces and enough romance to fill a Shakespearean play. He accessorized with magnifying glasses that had been smashed and ribbons galore. “I was just so into that collection. It completely overtook me. I still love it. I love the romance, you know, charging through the cobbled streets in all that amazing organdie. There are a lot of things in that collection that still haunt me,” Galliano said about his first masterpiece. The collection was so groundbreaking that it was bought in its entirety by Joan Burstein and put in the windows of her store, Browns. Despite this early success, he lost some of his key backers after his graduation and didn’t show for a few years. However, he was still awarded Designer of the Year in 1988 before moving to Paris. He would later go on to receive the coveted award in 1994, 1995, and 1997.
After moving there, he found a powerful ally in Anna Wintour. She helped to find him an investor and a crumbling mansion to show his next collection in. Old keys served as invitations to the event and friends Kate Moss, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, and Naomi Campbell modeled as a favor to the genius. The whole 17-piece collection was done in black because it was all he could afford. He did all the work in 15 days. Madonna and Regina Rothschild were in attendance. There were rose petals on the floor to brighten the mood of the collection and it went over as a smashing success.
The amazing designer has a philosophy about his creative process. “I start with the research and from this I build the muse, the idea, tell a story, develop a character, a look, and then a collection.”
In the mid-1990’s, Galliano had become known for his reinvention of the bias cut dress and his ultra-feminine, narrow tailoring. He caught the eye of LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault and was put into the position of chief designer at Givenchy in 1995. After only one collection, he was replaced and moved to the chief designer position at the much larger label, Christian Dior. Many people at Dior met this decision with doubt, due to his appearance and his radical changes he wanted to make within the line itself. He made the line smaller and cut closer to the body and soon everyone saw his ingenious vision. In 1997, on the label’s 50th anniversary, his first collection with the fashion house was revealed at the Grande Hotel in Paris on a floor that was made to look like Christian Dior’s 1940’s showroom, complete with 791 gold chairs and 4,000 roses. Between his Dior line and his own, Galliano currently produces six lines of couture and ready to wear and one called G Galliano at mid-season.
It is no secret that John Galliano is a romantic through and through. He recreated some of the period pieces from Dior for Madonna’s film Evita and insists that design philosophy is simple and that his “role is to seduce.” His muse has been sited as Charlize Theron and she is used in the fragrance ads for J’adore. He also makes almost all of her red carpet gowns.
He also looks to history and other cultures for some of his inspiration. His adventures to find this inspiration have been the talk of the town on several occasions. One of these was when he went by hot air balloon to view the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. The postures of the Egyptian pantheon inspired the corsetry that was seen in the celebrated 2004 collection and the poses that were used by the photographer of the collection, Richard Avedon. “I’m an adventurer and a pirate. I want to experience first-hand. It’s how I learn, how I get inspired,” he says of his travels. In order to get an unpreconcieved notion of the country in which he is going, he does no research before hand. When the designer travels, he does not stay in the typical 5-star resort, but prefers to sleep in a much more native way to get the full experience of the culture he is focused on. In 2006, the designer used his travels to release a unique line of 12 saddlebags inspired by countries he had been to in order to celebrate his 10th anniversary with Christian Dior.
For the 2010 Dior fall collection, Galliano looked to history once again and mixed feminine and masculine elements to achieve a look of romantic intrigue that reminds one of naughty aristocrats in the 19th century. The mixture of soft flowing chiffon with heavy wool sweaters, of barely-there tops with full leather pants and riding boots made for a look that is wearable and feminine whilst still being functional for cold months. The silhouette, as always, is kept close to the body as swirls of chiffon ruffle outwards around thigh high boots. The look is completed with a top hat and a fur collared leather coat. The combination of a heavy wool sweater with pretty ribbons threaded through it is the epitome of what Galliano was trying to achieve with this collection.
Galliano is a man that makes the world a little more beautiful and reminds the rest of us that romance creates passion for life. The 46-year-old pirate continues to make waves in the fashion industry with each new collection he releases. While his recent scandal has put a stop to his career with Dior, I don’t believe this will be the end of the line for Galliano. The creative spirit of him keeps the world on edge with baited breath as we await what inspiring beauty he releases next. He will continue to surprise and delight his colleagues and those aspiring to achieve his level of success.
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