Vintage designs from big designer names are no stranger when it comes to glamorous releases that stars and their stylist teams choose for the red carpet.
Under the spotlight and in front of a group of photographers before the 2012 Oscars, Natalie Portman walked in a red fifties Dior dress, Cardi B walked the 2019 Emmy Awards. and wore Thierry Mugler’s iconic creation “Birth Of Venus”, and Lily Rose Depp arrived at the Met Gala in the same year in a Chanel dress from 1992. To name just a few. This year will certainly not be an exception, especially if we keep in mind the “vintage revival” that has crept into fashion houses, as well as the Met Gala theme that will accompany the “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” exhibition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, and which will pay tribute to 400 years of fashion history. The official dress code “The Garden of Time” will bring a rhapsody of vintage looks to the first Monday in May, and the celebration of the beauty and diversity of fashion creation with a return to the past could also be reflected on the red carpet of the Oscars. We have selected designs from, not so long ago, history that we would like someone to breathe new life into. Celebrating the beauty and diversity of fashion design with a return to the past could also be reflected on the red carpet of the Oscars, and we have singled out several of them that we would like someone to breathe new life into.
JOHN GALLIANO FALL 1995 RTW
Inspired by the Mexican actress and Hollywood silent film star of the twenties and thirties, Dolores del Río, Galliano’s “Dolores” collection is a tribute to a woman’s passionate temperament, glamor and style whose beauty transcends the test of time. With a recognizable pinch of theatrics and drama, which the designer from Gibraltar has always been prone to, the collection was presented in March 1995. in a warehouse near the Pigalle district in Paris, and it remained important in fashion history because it was the last one before Galliano’s appointment as creative director at Givenchy and his move to Dior a year later.
GIVENCHY FALL 1995 COUTURE
After decades of shaping fashion history with his designs, the Paris collection in July 1995. was his last. Hubert de Givenchy retired without too much fanfare, saying goodbye to the collection simply named “The Last Show”, and it did not stand out from the rest at all. In the end, it didn’t even need to. However, it was the end of one era and the beginning of another. Hubert de Givenchy left the helm to the talented John Galliano, who soon passed the baton to the adored Alexander McQueen.
CHANEL SPRING 1997 COUTURE
Philip Treacy hats and diamonds instead of buttons were just a part of the couture rhapsody that Karl Lagerfeld designed for Chanel. in January 1997 Lagerfeld’s homage to Coco Chanel’s evening looks, whose silhouette evokes memories of the twenties and thirties of the last century, walked the runway at the Ritz Hotel in Paris. But the dress that was the last to walk down the runway at Shalom Harlow drew gasps of admiration. Inspired by Wilson Bentley’s photograph of a snowflake on glass, it was a “dress that doesn’t exist,” as if woven from the very air caught in a wick. Harlow was later immortalized by Peter Lindbergh in the same dress for Vogue, and her beauty was truly immortalized.
JEAN PAUL GAULTIER SPRING 1997 COUTURE
“Atmosphere of a Couture Salon”. That’s how Jean Paul Gaultier named his debut couture collection in the year 1997 . But even though she was the first, Gaultier seriously set out to push the boundaries of what was previously considered haute couture. Models walked the runway with a lit cigarette in hand, men wore corsets, and women wore masculine suits, and for the first time something as everyday and ordinary as denim appeared in a collection marked by couture. “Gaultier has created unisex couture, possibly the latest take on the old ‘craft’ yet,” Vogue wrote at the time. However, this does not mean that he ran away from elegance.
ALEXANDER MCQUEEN FALL 1999 RTW
London’s Gatliff Road warehouse was encircled by winter, and the frozen landscape welcomed the guests housed in a huge Plexiglas box that imitated a giant snow globe. McQueen found inspiration for the collection in Stanley Kubrick’s psychological horror film “The Shining”, and the collection was named “Overall” after the infamous hotel. But, apart from his eternal play with dark elements, the frozen winter landscape brought an impression of silence and serenity, just like the marvelous white dress for which Alexander intended the last exit.
CHRISTIAN DIOR SPRING COUTURE 1999
Surrealism is the theme that inspired John Galliano and his team to create a couture collection for Dior that walked the runway at the headquarters of the fashion house on Avenue Montaigne in Paris. Jean Cocteau and Salvador Dalí were intertwined even in the smallest details, the hats were reminiscent of those worn by the actress Renée Pearl, and the paper “windows” were inspired by Cecil Beaton’s photographs for Vogue. In the same year, Celine Dion wore one of the creations from the collection on the red carpet of the Oscars, and Nicole Kidman posed for Steven Meisel for Vogue in another.
CHRISTIAN LACROIX SPRING COUTURE 1999
As an art historian who moved from Arles to Paris with the intention of becoming a curator, Christian Lacroix has always woven his collections with inspiration from art, and his fashion stories burst with color and detail. Such was the couture collection in 1999. which he presented in January at the Paris Grand Hotel, with oversized details, lots of tulle and bows, pronounced proportions and silhouettes reminiscent of dresses worn by dolls in the 19th century. century, simultaneously “abstract and romantic”, as he himself described it at the time.
CHANEL FALL 2000 COUTURE
Presenting the collection to the fashion crowd at the Piscine Keller in Paris, Lagerfeld lined up 59 looks that, placing the story in different fashion eras, represent ideal looks for a pool party. It’s not entirely clear whether pool parties ever look so glamorous, but that doesn’t matter. The creations that look particularly wonderful are those that are most reminiscent of the Hollywood giants’ creations from the silent film era, and what would be even more wonderful is if someone, more than two decades later, breathes life into them again.
