John Galliano, previous head designer of the french fashion company Christian Dior was hugely inspired by Gustav Klimt in his Christian Dior Spring 2008 Couture Collection.
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian symbolist painter whose main subject was the female body however also painted landscapes as well. After many people complained that the paintings he completed around 1900 for the ceiling of the Great Hall of the University of Vienna were pornographic, Klimt regained success with the paintings of his “golden phase”. Many of his paintings from this period included gold leaf.
His two most popular paintings from this time are the “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer” (1907) and “The Kiss” (1907-1908). “The Kiss” shows a couple intertwining their bodies, locked in intimacy. The work is composed of oil paint with applied layers of gold leaf, which gives it a more modern look.
It took Klimt three years to complete the painting “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer” and is made of oil and gold on canvas, showing elaborate and complex ornamentation as seen in the Jugendstil style. Like in “The Kiss”, Klimt has used a range of geometric shapes in his paintings giving them a more abstract feel.
Klimt’s “golden phase” is where John Galliano first got his inspiration from, here are some of the finished fashion pieces:
Galliano has embraced the murky yellow and unique shapes and patterns that are seen in some of Gustav Klimt’s work, also the design of the outfits along with the unusual hair and makeup matches the unusual, abstract look of Klimts paintings.
Shannon Lampitt Unit 8 