RUNWAY: John Galliano FW12

For Bill Gaytten's second menswear collection since being appointed Creative Director for the brand, he made the Galliano collection his own. His attempt to create and style a collection like John Galliano, the man, would have ended in a generally panned SS12 season. For FW12, the British designer adopted a different way of creating and presenting a collection. Layers were not piled atop layers and the references were quite linear rather than John Galliano's usually abstract and often complicated storylines.

Gaytten opted for a heritage inspired collection with models donning unflattering britches and pinpoint sharp footwear. The collection felt uninspired, to be utterly frank. The tailoring was quite good, especially the outerwear, but what we constantly get from Gaytten (both in mens and womenswear, as well as his collections thus far at Dior womenswear and haute couture) is a lack of direction. As the highly respected and famed fashion critic Cathy Horn was once quoted as saying about Gaytten, "I like Mr. Gaytten. He’s a sweetheart, but he is not a designer". What Dior and John Galliano need is a visionaire, someone with a clear vision for the respective houses. Maybe Gaytten needs some time to make Galliano his own and he's starting to carve out his niche with this FW12 collection, but in the end, we felt a lack of direction, albeit the collection will find customers appreciating the tailoring.