Dior Cruise Shanghai 2010 -- Think Pink!

Dior's Cruise 2010 collection -- shown in Shanghai, where women can still afford to wear Dior -- is chock full of looks that press my fashion buttons: retro, minimalist, ladylike, ruffles and pink, pink, pink. OMG, there was even an evening dress with SLEEVES.

According to Style.com (where you can see the whole collection), John Galliano's inspiration was French New Wave cinema, which explains the Bardo-esque (or Shrimpton-esque) hair on the models. Except for some exhuberant evening looks, Galliano reigned in the runway crazy, so a woman could easily pick out outfits she would wear -- or would wear if she were 20 years younger and 10 lbs. lighter.

Some of these garments reminded me of clothes I actually wore way back when. I had a red dress much like the pink one with the white collar and placket. And when I was very young, my mother took me to a rummage sale in the basement of Blessed Sacrament Church, where she bought two ruffled organdy prom dresses that looked a whole lot like that pink ruffled explosion in the last picture posted here. My best friend and I spent a summer dressed up like Scarlett O'Hara at the barbeque. Ah, good times. Now if I could only win some lottery and get that black leather jacket . . .

Madame Butterfly

The Sprint 2007 Couture collections were shown last week, and Style.com, the official website of Vogue and W Magazines, was absolutely in raptures over the collection produced by John Galliano for Christian Dior. "What psychological process did it take to lift John Galliano to the extraordinary place of brilliance he reached—or rather, rediscovered—in his spring couture? "Everything about the Dior collection—inspired, he said, “by Pinkerton’s affair with Cio-Cio San, Madame Butterfly”—reconfirmed his unique talent to evoke beauty, sensitivity, narrative, and emotion in a fashion show. Kimonos, obis, and geisha makeup were Dior-ified, transformed into delicate translations of New Look peplum suits and full-skirted dance dresses." You can practically hear the editor hyperventilating as s/he types. I am glad that she managed to come down off her cloud long enough to mention Dior's "New Look," because the fabrics may be Japanese, but the shapes are pure vintage Dior. For example, the yellow and green ensemble is Spring 2007; the red gown
is from Fall/Winter 1957-1958, but they look like they could be from the same collection. And that's fine with me, at least these dresses look like something that's actually meant to be worn, unlike some of Galliano's recent couture collections, which are pure costume. And I luuuuuuurve vintage Dior. I probably would have hated wearing it, since it doesn't exactly feature comfortable and work friendly shapes. In fact, Coco Chanel once said upholsters them." But dang, it's "Dior doesn't dress women, he elegant.

Elegance in dress isn't valued, or even mentioned, much any more. I assume that's because all the style setters now are young substance abusing celebrities who wouldn't know elegance if it bit them on their oh-so-obviously bare butts. I wish some mature woman (and by mature I mean "35 or old enough to know the difference between a car and a gynecologist's office" would lead the charge to bring back grand style in dress. Of course, I'd still be working at home in my pajamas or jeans, but at least I'd have more pretty things to look at.

Purple and blue dresses from Christian Dior Spring 2007 Couture; black strapless gown Christian Dior Winter 1953; alas, I have no date for the full-skirted cocktail dress.