Although I would have liked to say that Gaultier redeemed a dismal mens showing with a brilliant couture collection, I can't. Half of it is passably nice (nice, just isn't enough in couture, now is it?) half of it headscratchers of the hackeneyed variety. The stuff he makes well are excellent, the corset numbers and the pantsuits, but the drag numbers are quite a drag and cease to be amusing, just dreary.
Concieved as an intense distillation of all things Christian Dior (yes, yet another sincere hommage), this collection was hardly slight. In his mastery of couture technique and feel, John Galliano has few equals. Yet, what was presented felt mechanical, and if I dare say, rather dull. Was it the Cecil Beatonesque tableaus? The retro references? 
Even though overcast by a cloud of restraint, the could-be-last Lacroix couture collection was still sublimely beautiful, an apology for the very existance of fashion. The palette, though sombre, was yet richly nuanced (midnight with black? yummy!). The looks, though chastened, still bore very much the stamp of a master, the very soul of classic couture. 
