He didn't open his fashion house until he was 41. He died of a heart attack 10 years later. With such a small archive of work to draw upon, it's hard to surmise how he would have felt about the changes underway at his company. On the other, he was a master showman.
Gray walls trimmed in white, plush carpeting and chandeliers all say genteel propriety.
It's said the sight of these creations so incensed French housewives that they ripped the dresses off women in the street. It was more of a fuss than any of Galliano's work has created. It was also wildly successful. His love of things luxe might lead one to think Dior, the son of a rich fertilizer manufacturer, was bourgeois and would be horrified by the antics now seen on Dior runways. But as a youth he fought attempts by his parents to turn him into a businessman.