Spring 2008 Paris Highlight: John Galliano

In the latest episode of John Galliano's part romantic part maverick imagination world, comes this Sweet Charity / Grey gardens inspired collection that hit the Paris runway on a day where Paris, indeed, was the least bit interested in fashion - the Stade Francais was cheering the heroic French XV. Galliano, nevertheless, in a always actual restoration of historical nostalgia, featured a collection that transported the audience in a world that is a perfect blend of fairy and decrepit. There were twenties frills, floppy hats, flounced jackets, eccentric knotted knits in pastel pinks, printed chiffons or earth-tone metallics - true to Galliano's eponymous label. The setting: a dilapidated part of the seaside, a ramshackle boardwalk past a polythene covered spinning merry-go-round, past Chinese lanterns, a chandelier of spectacles, an ostrich on a pile of clapped out televisions and torn up newspapers.