John Galliano

Juan Carlos Antonio Galliano was born in Gibraltar in 1961 of Spanish parents named Anita and Juan Carlos Galliano. In 1966, his parents emigrated to London with Juan and their two daughters. He attended Wilsons Grammar School and showed a lot of skill in languages. While doing his A levels, he took up textiles and put together a portfolio to present to St. Martins
College of art and was immediately accepted.

During his studies at the College, Galliano experimented a lot with bias cutting, reviving and refining of textiles. He then worked with Tommy Nutter, in Savile Row, London's most famous tailor's street. He noticed that sleeves always tended to swing forwards, as if cut on the curve, so that you could really move your arms. He began cutting sleeves in a spiral so that his armholes could be neat and even cut trousers on the bias in order to make legs look slender.

In 1984, his graduation collection at St. Martins consisted of 8 garments named "Les Incroyables" a fantastic, impeccably produced series of garments based on French Revolutionary garments of the 1790's. Joan Burstein of Browns, chose to snap up all the dresses and put them in her window. These sold out very fast, one having been bought by singer Diana Ross. John Galliano was then offered a job in New York, but just as he was leaving, Joan Burstein called him again for a repeat order. He and his friends made the clothes at a high speed and he seemed all set to be on his way to spectacular success.

In 1985, whilst designing clothes for the album cover of Malcolm McLaren's Madame Butterfly, he met fashion stylist Amanda Grieve (later Lady Harlech) who was noted for her originality. They worked together on a series of exotic collections with names such as "Afghanistan repudiates Western Ideals" and "Fallen Angels" or "Blanche du Bois" or "Lucid Game". She has remained his friend as well as one of his muses who takes an active part in his creative process, accessorising his extraordinary clothes with frail twiggy birdsnest hats and shoes like what can be seen in the 18th century.

Following that, a year later, Galliano created a scissor dress cut in a manner that would cross in front of the body in order to form A-basque at the hip. In 1988, he created a disappearing lapel on a jacket, followed by an L-shaped skirt and a "winking" seam which opened at intervals in order to better expose the flesh.

In 1988 John Galliano was honoured and named British Designer of the Year.

During the late 1980's, John Galliano worked very hard out of a studio in Parsons Green, London, sleeping under his cutting table. He then packed up and decided to leave for Paris. Once there, a friend lent him some studio space and Andre Leon Talley, creative director of American Vogue, took him under his wing and introduced him to everyone important in Paris. In 1989, he began presenting collections of slinky bias cut Dresses. In 1992, John Galliano presented his "Princess Lucretia" collection with some very extravagant crinolines.


In 1995, John Galliano presented his "Back to the 40's" Collection.  Bernard Arnault, president of LVMH who owns the couture houses of Lacroix, Dior and Givenchy chose Galliano in order to revitalize the House of Givenchy. Galliano and Givenchy share one thing, which is their complete dedication to their craft. Galliano tried for years to express his complex ideas of cutting and draping against all the greatest odds. Those who expected Galliano to depict Givenchy negatively were wrong. Among daytime clothes were several homages to the old master, suits with belted jackets, a beautiful dress with bows on the pockets and he even named a sleek black gown "Audrey Hepburn" following one of Givenchy's most famous clients.

In 1996 Galliano's two collections for Givenchy were very big successes. Then another surprise, after only one year, Bernard Arnault moved Galliano over to the House of Dior.

Late in the year of 2001, John Galliano was awarded a C.B.E. by Queen Elizabeth of England, for his services to the world of fashion. When the word got out, there was great speculation as to what outrageous clothes he would probably wear for the ceremony. He nevertheless remained quite sober, only wearing the customary morning coat made by Brioni with no shirt underneath. He was honoured on the eve before his 41st birthday.

John Galliano is also known to have once dressed Diana, Princess of Wales in a now famous dark blue lace-edged evening gown.

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