Dior's genteel polish versus tribal Gaultier

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2007

PARIS (AFP) — John Galliano for Christian Dior updated polished old-style glamour, harking back to when a woman's shoes, bag, hat and gloves perfectly matched her neatly-belted suit.

At the opposite end of the thematic scale, the Paris winter womenswear catwalks Tuesday also featured memories of punk and the wilds of Scotland at Jean Paul Gaultier and Vivienne Westwood's cave girls.

Britain's Galliano tapped into the legendary French fashion house's style codes to send out a dazzling array of nearly 60 coordinated outfits on models genteelly descending a sweeping staircase.

With its pale decor, the elegant setting, which was actually inside a giant tent in the Jardin des Tuileries near the Louvre museum, was reminiscent of a traditional salon of the...