My favorite source of inspiration and creative energy.

One thing that I look forward to most every year is the day of Christian Dior's couture show.  John Galliano (a genius) is one of my favorite designers and never fails to inspire me with the breathtaking beauty and sheer genius of his work.  I'm truly in awe, as I am of Botticelli, Monet or any other artist.  Make no mistake about it, couture is art.  It just happens to be wearable, unlike the aforementioned artistic geniuses.  Whereas, your taste in art may help to portray you to people who visit your home or office, clothing allows you to show the world your personality.  Whether that's lumberjack shirts and old Levi's or conservative business suit or a couture ball gown that took 800 hours to complete, what you choose to wear immediately conveys how you perceive the world around you and how you want that world to perceive you.

But back to my favorite fashion god...  I love how he takes the incredible DNA of the venerable house built by Christian Dior and makes it relevant to today.  Yes, I'll never be able to afford it in my lifetime, nor will 99% of people on the planet but then neither will I ever own a Rembrandt or Monet.  Every time Paris fashion week rolls around, the one show I literally schedule my world around is Christian Dior.  Every season, I'm just awed by the beauty and incredible artistic talent of the team of designers, seamstresses and embroiderers who make this show happen.  Today, I just want to share some of the pictures that make my heart go pitter patter and make me love fashion.  His inspiration for this collection came from the illustrations of the artist Rene Gruau.  Gruau was a famous fashion illustrator who worked for many fashion magazines including Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Madame Figaro, Marie Claire, Elle and Flair.  He also did illustrations for advertisements and haute couture houses like Christian Dior, Balenciaga, Givenchy, Schiaparelli and Lanvin.  His work was very fluid and he used graphic jolts of color to bring drama to his work.  Gruau worked as artistic director at the house of Dior and John Galliano used Gruau's sketches as his inspiration for this collection.  The drapes on the gowns represent the graphic lines of the sketches.  The ombre shading in the magenta suit below references the shading in Gruau's illustrations and the hat looks like a little pencil scratch on a piece of paper.


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Even the dark shading of a dart or a pleat from Gruau's original sketch, translated graphically on this grey dress with embroidered skirt.  The dresses are shaded on one side just like an illustration where the light is coming from above the model's right shoulder.


This is another ombre dress which is inspired by the way Gruau used shading in his illustrations.

For the complete collection, visit Style.com here:  http://www.style.com/fashionshows/review/S2011CTR-CDIOR