Galliano has had his ups and downs since he began working in London in 1985, but he has rarely been less than a headliner. He has shown it as a flamenco costume with a trailing ruffle and as a flapper fantasy. But it got pared down until now it is the profile of the late '90s. But they are sexy, and therefore a challenge that women seem to relish. The slip dress, with its slink and its suggestion of lingerie, is now ubiquitous in the High Streets and Main Streets and malls.
Couture looks different now because it has lightened up.
Some critics insist that the ateliers have lost a crucial sense of grandeur, and to a degree that is true. There are fewer majestic ballgowns in taffeta, fewer loopy cocktail costumes bedecked with crinolines and ribbons. The market for such elaborate finery has dwindled to the point where such clothes are best seen in the exhibitions of museum costume institutes. The recently-opened retrospective on British fashion at London's Victoria and Albert Museum will surprise many visitors with the elaborateness of conception and execution in costumes that are just a few decades old. It has taken designers a while to alter their approach, but ever since Giorgio Armani ripped the structure out of jackets around 1980, attention had to be paid to more flexible, innovative ways.