Paper I wrote on John Galliano\'s past collections and when he got his inspirations from.

1. Ambar Zaatar
March 3, 2010
TXMI4270
10:10 – 11:00
Reaction Paper: A Look at John Galliano
As the saying goes, “History always repeats itself.” John Galliano, one of the
most incredible designers known to us has always looked to the past as an inspiration for
his collections. He stems from past dress to create unbelievable, unusual and unique
styles of dress. His ability to look at past civilizations makes for fabulous clothing.
Figure 1.1 Figure 1.2
In figures 1.1 through 1.3, Galliano looks to the Egyptian civilization as an
inspiration for his Spring/Summer 2004 and again for the Spring/Summer 2010 Haute
Couture Collection. In figure 1.1, Spring/Summer 2010 collection, the model is dressed
in briefs, which is similar to the Egyptian loincloth. The leopard skin drape around the
body reflects the dress of priests in ancient Egypt. Also, the model has a shaved head
look, which again is how priests had their hair. Although Galliano has put together the

2. look of a working class man with the look of a priest, it is simply for a shock affect. A
priest in Egypt would have never been seen walking around in merely a loincloth; he
would have had a sheer pleated garment on top of it.
In figure 1.2 we can see the obvious relevancy to Egyptian costume. To begin
with, the makeup is incredibly dramatic and bold. The eye makeup especially is made to
resemble the arched eyebrow and pointed eyeliner made in ancient Egypt out of “kohl.”
The jewelry also is encrusted with jewels and the gold is dominating. As for the jewels on
the clothing, we can see the beautiful stones on the collar of the dress, as well as the
sleeves. Turquoise was very popular in Ancient Egypt, so Galliano made it a point to
make it stand out in the dress. The dress itself looks like a replica of hieroglyphics on
papyrus paper. The colors of the dress and of the images on the dress make a great
Egyptian inspired outfit.
Figure 1.3 Figure 1.4
Figure 1.3 is clearly an inspiration of the Egyptian mummies. He has found a way
to make beautify the mummy look. You can see that the under layers are wrapped around

3. the body to make it look like a mummy, yet he adds the black sheer garment to make it
couture. Galliano also incorporated the exaggerated and dramatic makeup and jewelry
into this outfit, in order to tie the whole look of the collection together. He made sure to
make the garment come around the head as well because during mummification, the
entire body was wrapped.
Figure 1.4 shows a beautiful shoe from Galliano’s Fall 2009 runway show. Of
course, it is very exaggerated but the shoes lace up almost to the knee, similar to the solea
and crepida worn in ancient Rome. The soleas were the sandals they used, and the
crepidas, were the shoes they used that laced up. These shoes were elegant and elaborate,
which is probably why Galliano chose to replicate them using his own unique style.
Figure 1.5 Figure 1.6
In figure 1.5, we stray away from the Egyptian look and move to an Arabian look.
This is from his Spring 2010 collection, where turbans and baggy trousers inspired him.
The earliest period where we saw the use of the turbans was with the Ottoman Turks.

4. Men wore turbans and loose, full trousers. Although these trousers are less full than some
others in the collection, we still get the Arabian feel. His shirt is more like a glomlick, a
chemise, which were widely used by the men during this empire. We can see that he has
very strappy leather sandals on. Sandals were very popular during this time, especially
those made from colorful leather.
In figure 1.6, Galliano made a bold statement by creating an abaya for Saks Fifth
Avenue in Saudi Arabia. When French President Nicolas Sakozy “banned” full body
veils, Galliano agreed to take part in a fashion show in Paris that consisted entirely of
abayas (Odell, 2009, para. 1). The abaya was first seen when early Islam came about.
According to the Quran, women are supposed to wear abayas and in some circumstances
with veils. Galliano created a black abaya with sequin and fringes. He opted not to
complete the look with a veil. Abayas were worn for protection and modesty, so the
abaya created by Galliano is long and flowy with sleeves.
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Figure 1.7 Figure 1.8

5. Figure 1.7 is from Galliano’s Fall/Winter 2007 collection. For this collection he
focused on costumes, and he incorporated the Celtic look. Although it is described as a
Viking inspiration, the elements of the look actually come from Celtic influence. Women
would wear fur capes, which we can clearly see Galliano created for his look. Many
people associate horned helmets with the Vikings, but in actuality the Celts were the ones
who wore them more often, although women did not wear them. Instead of a patterned
skirt, Galliano created a patterned dress for the outfit.
In Galliano’s Spring/Summer 2002 collection, we can see a Native American
inspiration, shown in figure 1.8. Native Americans used vibrant colors and beads to
create their looks as well as a lot of patterns. This specific outfit resembles the
Cherokee’s tear dress, which is the official tribal dress of the Cherokee women. This
specific tribe uses a lot of patterns on their clothing, especially diamond shapes. Another
characteristic of their dress is the combination of vertical and horizontal colorful stripes
on the skirt portion.
Most designers look to the past to create modern looks for today. The most
successful collections reflect popular looks from ancient societies. Galliano has been
influenced by many different civilizations such as the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Native
Americans and so many more. He also takes popular dress from different eras to inspire
his collections. As stated before, history does always repeat itself and will continue to go
around in circles. Galliano takes looks from the past and gives them a modern and unique
twist to create looks that reflect who he is as a designer.