From

Haute Couture
Spring 2001

(ELLE.com) As Haute Couture week drew to a close, fashion designers seemed inspired by the same call of the wild. Click on ELLE.com’s Fashion Collections to see how controversial designers Seredin & Vasiliev and John Galliano thrilled audiences with primordial motifs interwoven within exotic landscapes.

Seredin & Vasiliev
Seredin & Vasiliev’s show was all about Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, but this time the innocents in fig leaves were replaced by fur-clad barbarians. In the forest there were giraffe print minidresses, leopard print coats and bird of paradise bustiers with long painted nails. The winds of Africa blew in braided headdresses and decorated masks. Showing on the same day as Chanel, S & V presented their interpretation of a classic Chanel suit embroidered completely in white pearls. In their version, the pearl choker was fringed with hair and the jacket undersized while the skirt slid down the hips. A wasp waist dress made of printed Vogue magazine covers drew applause from the crowd.

Christian Dior
Housewives, streetwalkers and Amazon huntresses strolled down Christian Dior’s catwalk in yet another one of John Galliano’s outrageous and provocative collections. Inspired by his childhood comic book heroes, Galliano presented a series of female figures from sexually frustrated secretaries to frumpy mothers and gorgeous glamazons. Models wore swollen dresses hand-painted with martinis, coffee cups, vacuum cleaners and teddy bears and carried baby dolls, their hair tied up in plastic rain kerchiefs, while a parade of bronzed and bare-breasted huntresses wielded shields, spears or bows and arrows. Sequined American flag bikers jackets, dotted with campaign buttons and sported with studded leather G-strings were a clear reference to the U.S. presidential elections. In this kind of over-the-top show there wasn’t the slightest thread of clothing for a self-respecting woman to wear, but it’s proof once again that Galliano is a master of spectacle.

Photos by Java Fashion Photo Agency