Christian Dior Spring 2011 Couture

Two words: René Gruau. Another two words: color, shadow. In essence, that’s what John Galliano is thinking about with his Dior haute couture show which will be presented Monday at the Musée Rodin on the Left Bank in Paris. Messieurs Dior and Gruau had a longstanding working relationship, with the illustrator able to deftly render the couturier’s creations in a few charcoal strokes and daubs of intensely hued gouache. Except, things aren’t what they seem. Gruau’s wonderful drawings were, said Galliano at the house’s couture atelier at Rue François Premier Sunday afternoon, much more layered and complex up close than they can seem in print. “It is,” he added, “like looking at the Mona Lisa on a postcard.” Just don’t expect a literal homage here; while there is something of Gruau's sensual graphic glamour (and intense color)—think chiaroscuro beading and sketch lines rendered in feathers—the silhouettes only bear the signature John Galliano. Kind of appropriate since the designer revealed that he’d been intent on a career in fashion illustration while at Central Saint Martins in London, with a job lined up in Manhattan after graduation. He started designing clothes only after being encouraged to do so by his tutor. “I was good at drawing,” Galliano said, laughing. “I started to draw with my left hand because I’d gotten so bored of using my right.”

Armani Privé Spring 2011 Couture

Giorgio Armani’s team—his whole crew of couture staff and seamstresses, transported from Milan to his Paris studio on the Rue Lauriston—are polishing up the collection he’ll show tomorrow night. Take that almost literally. The light-refracting properties of jewels (rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds inspired the collection he’ll send down the runway in a venue located off the Place Vendôme—the heart of the French jewelry establishment—on Monday.

The color and cut of precious gems have been conceptually transposed into ultramodern iridescent surfaces, slick 3-D constructs, and a set of domed Perspex headpieces designed by Philip Treacy. As an opener to the haute couture shows in Paris, the notion of precious stones makes a suitably sumptuous allusion in a season which reaches for the ultimate extravagance fashion can offer to both private clients as well as contenders for upcoming BAFTAs and Academy Awards. What to watch, though, in terms of the general shape-shifting dialog of trend? The way things are edging toward streamlined layering: a long top over a skinny pant. After pre-fall’s stirrings in the direction of tunics and leggings, there will be more to think about how we’ll want to realign proportions from Mr. Armani.