Fashion Funhouse Emporium

Christian Dior Fall 2011 Couture Designed by Bill Gaytten - Images: Style.com

Before I even took a look at the Christian Dior Fall Couture 2011 images, status updates all over the social networks touted that Cathryn Horyn gave it the thumbs down. I was almost sure she was her usual veterarn hard-to-please fashion journalist. That is until I saw the mess for myself.

Keeping the Chrisitan Dior collections true to the namesake's visions was perhaps the biggest challenge to John Galliano. In recent seasons, it seems that Galliano showed a bitrepetition in his designs and his first shows back in 2001 weren't his best works. But what hindered the now disgraced designer also made him brilliant.

As for Gaytten's couture collection for Dior, if editors weren't told they were viewing the Christian Dior show, how would they know at all that this show had any connection to Mr. Dior's legacy? Gaytten's Dior-Pucci-Jeremy Scott-Heatherette hybrid lacked the one element that Christian Dior built his reputation on- refined elegance.

Christinan Dior's "New Look" - Images: Fashion the Century of the Designer

Even the most wacky of Galliano's collections still had a certain, eh, shall we say, Je ne sais quoi...but it worked.

The fall 2011 couture collection started with an 80's throwback then nosedived into a mesh origami and sheer muu muu collision course. Fluorescent paint smudges and pink zebra might be great for the hipster kids. Maybe the technical know-how is there. Perhaps Gaytten could do a successful line on his own once he's had more experience in front of the camera. But this is not Dior.

Despite the personal troubles of John Galliano, the union between the designer and the label may have run its course. The company has acknowledged though the 25 year assistant oversaw and designed the couture 2011 collection, he was not a sure shot for the Creative Director of Dior: "Mr. Gaytten has done this collection but he is not artistic director." Dior president Sidney Toledano told journalists backstage in a post-show interview. "We are taking our time because we want to find a long-term solution, and many hypotheses are being explored

For those of us who gasped at the sight of possible downgrade of Dior, this is a relief. LVMH should take a good look Richardo Tischi's couture collection for Fall 2011 and make him an offer that he cant refuse.

Past Couture Collections with John Galliano at Christian Dior - Images: Style.com

Cartoon: © Fashion Funhouse Emporium

John Galliano was suspended from his post as the head designer at the 65 year old Christian Dior label for being accused of making anti-Semitic remarks during an altercation with a couple at a cafe. Today, the eccentric designer, often outfitted in pirate-like ensembles is ordered by French prosecutors to face his accuser. Now, a second woman has come forth and says she was also insulted by Galliano a few weeks ago at the same cafe, La Perle in Paris. To add insult to injury, a new video has surfaced that is said to be the designer using more anti-Semitic remarks in front of his apartment. The video has yet to be verified as legit.

So this designer walks into a bar....stop me if you've heard this one... and says to a couple...Allegedly..."Dirty Jewish face, you should be dead" and "F*cking Asian bastard, I will kill you" reported news site Europe 1. It was also stated that the insults were thrown down in English after the couple mocked him for looking like a street vagrant, to which Galliano was said to reply "You are f*cking ulgy and your bag is too."

Cartoon: © Fashion Funhouse Emporium

After a week of fashion shows, sitting as a silent observer, I can very well testify that it is highly plausible that verbal assult on other people's appearances will take place. Though, Americans usually utter them under their breath, and tell you that you look "gorge and fab" to your face when you turn around with an inquisitive face as if to ask the flamboyant guy behind you "did you just say that my necklace was tacky?"

The Internets were a blaze that the Dior darling could be accused of such a thing. How could he do this to so many actresses at a time when they were lent Dior dresses to wear to the Oscars? And with both the Christian Dior and Galliano's namesake label slated to roll out their Fall 2011 ready-to-wear collections, this is the kind of press that Bernard Arnault, the House of Dior and Louis Vuitton Moet Henessy doesn't want with their most coveted and elitist label.

Many editors and buyers rushed to his defense, like a mother who's child is accused of a crime, stating that they've never known the shy, withdrawn boy to ever become violent or say a mean word about anyone. WWD quoted that everyone from Saks, Bergdorf Goodman, and other noted fashion reporters echoed this sentiment.

John Galliano has filed a counter suit against claiming defamation. LVMH is not the only party that has a zero no tolerance policy against racism. In France, however, both parties could face serious consequences. The penalty if the couple is found guilty is one year in prison or a fine. For Galliano, if found guilty, he could face up to two years in jail or a large fine.

Galliano has always been a favorite of mine, as he breaths life into an industry which has gone dull in terms of creativity in favor of sales, most recognizably here in the states. But in a time when Big Brother in the form of the public is watching us all, everyone, including high profile designers are included in watching themselves in a celebrity obsessed culture. Designers and fashion in general fall under the category of such. And of course, where the money flows in, any accusation of ill behavior (or that your head designer can be a closeted racist) leaves a mark and sends the public relations damage control committees into the war room. Especially at Oscar time when dresses are the equivalent of placing a Coca Cola can strategically in camera view on a night stand in a blockbuster movie. Ann Hathaway's eight wardrobe changes of luxury label dresses during a three hour show is a prime example of this.

Regardless if the accusations of bigotry and antisemitism are true, this most likely marks the end of John Galliano's tenure at Christian Dior. Questions have come about to the designer's alcohol abuse, with "insiders" suggesting he get help. Recently he's toned down his wildly theatrical runway shows after much criticism on his homeless and mental patient influenced collection. Bernard Arnault himself has asked the designer to tone it down, stating that the Christian Dior label is not about exhibitionism(hmmm?) to which Arnault said Galliano obliged.

With personal behavior aside, such taming of the shrew has led to more criticism of the designer, with critics like Cathryn Horyn expressing a yawn: "Last season, there seemed to be no escape from the Dior archive as Mr. Galliano trotted out another horse-and-hound collection, and some recent ready-to-wear shows have felt skewed to the safest expectations."

So it may lead some of us to conclude that its time to go. No doubt, John Galliano is one of fashion's greatest talents, but like all of us, in all of our jobs, there seems a time to move on when you've exhausted your options and full-filled your goals. Such as the case with John Galliano at Dior. The fact that LVHM suspeneded the courtier without investigation shows they are not afraid to move on.

Perhaps, if his namesake Galliano label could be his focus, building up his own brand to the tune of his own inspirations of Eyptian hieroglyphics, hobos, pirates, A Street Car named Desire and which ever else he observes and chooses to interpret into artful clothing. However, his own label is also backed by powerhouse LVMH. Unless the company can learn to live with fashion's "bad boy" and support the Galliano label, someone would have to take an extreme risk to financially back the designer who's image now, will be undoubtedly tarnished. If the fashion world is anything like celebrity, perhaps much like Britney Spear's public trials and tribulations, Galliano could lay low and come back.

As for now, unless these accusations can be disproved, his future is on shaky ground.

Cartoon: © Fashion Funhouse Emporium

The Business End

Atari signed a licensing agreement with the Weinstein-helmed "Project Runway" television series.  In an attempt to get the ladies into the video game racket,  Atari is developing a series of "Project Runway" games for the Wii.

While geek chicks will argue there are plenty of women on the game scene already, like my current girl-crush Olivia Munn, there no denying that with games that promote stealing cars and beating up hookers might turn some of the female targeted audience off.

What the companies are banking on, is that in addition to the games that most women play already like puzzles and fitness games, that blood, guts and military tank free versions will appeal to the untapped ladies market.  The video game industry has risen to surpass the music industry in sales figures, according to WWD.

The Project Runway Video Game, set to launch on March 2, 2010, will feature the stars of the television show, Heidi Klum, Tim Gunn and Micheal Kors (Where's Nina Garcia?) handing out challenges to gamers like those similar to the shows. Maybe design a dress for Christina Aguilera? Use the "Macy's Accessory Wall" and the "Loreal Paris make-up room." And, possibly, should this project take off, there may be room for more big brands to slide their names into sections of the virtual studio and even the walls.

Atari and Wii is not the first to crack into this market. Games like "Fashion Week: Junior Stylist," "Imagine: Fashion Designer" and similar simulation games complete with malls and such have been out there. But with the support of a hit show and Wii,  it has a little more backing for the older and mass audiences. The Project Runway Season 6 finale was watched by 4.2 million viewers, according to TV Guide.

Photo: Amazon.com, Imagine: Fashion Designer

I remember working as a freelancer at a major fashion magazine, making schedules and responding to New York Fashion Week invitations for the editors.  My favorite public relations rep were sending emails back and forth, joking of course, that we need to make a "Fashion Week" board game, complete with the politics, and planning it takes to really work behind the scenes to make this glamorous spectacle.

He sent me an email saying: "You have landed on "Your name is not on the list. Go back 5 spaces."

I returned " I just drew the " What?! Don't you know who I am card?! Must find me a seat."

I suppose that game wouldn't be as fun for young girls dreaming of a career as a fashion editor, designer or stylist. It sure was fun for the two of us to joke about though. Who knew we were actually on to something?

I'm curious as to if Heidi, Micheal Kors and Tim Gunn will look like those weird weeble wobble Wii characters.

If I were to make a game it would be based in the world of couture and luxury.  If you're really into fashion, and though you are embarrassed to admit it, you've gotten a little turned on by  the Barneys.com shoe page or seeing a Dior slide show on Style.com.

And if you are like me, you probably don't have $2,000 to drop on a pair of black leather over-the-knee Lanvin boots. If you even could, and you could live with yourself knowing that your parents never made that much money in two months, you may question the practicality of 6 inch stiletto heels when your profession requires you to run all over the city, schlep trunks and balance shopping bags.

It be great to have the kind of graphics the guys get in Call of Duty or "Grand Theft Auto. Maybe your animated character work its way up, through all of the folding fashion publications, from lowly unpaid intern and then to assistant, then to an Anna Wintour-like powerhouse. You'd go on fashion adventures like attending Paris Fashion week where you'd get to choose whatever you wanted from McQueen and Givenchy. Another part of your mission would be to get to the House of Dior, to meet your best friend John Galliano, who has chosen you as his muse.  He would then let you into his extensive archive. Then, the hard part of the game would be choosing if you want to wear a vintage dress worn by Grace Kelly or just have your buddy John create a new one just for you.

It's kind of like The Sims, but more fun. I created a Sims character that looked like myself, dressed it, bought it furniture, but after a while, it got depressed and was begging for change. Yes, as you can imagine, I lost interest in playing The Sims soon after. If my fashion virtual game is as hard as it is in reality, I might want to stop playing it as well.