A black bias-cut evening dress made of a synthetic charmeuse fabric with a sweetheart neckline and off-the-shoulder straps. Overlapping black and eggshell white appliqué panels sweep across the right arm of the bodice and shoulder to resemble a tulip. Panels of contrasting black fabric extend in meandering vine-like shapes, spiraling around the hips in the style of "stems" or "leaves" of tulips. The dress features a boned interior corset that extends to the waistline. The hemline is 15" longer at the back, creating a small train. This production piece is part of the 'no-seams' collection of dresses established by Galliano in the 1990s.
‘Le Papillon et La Fleur’ Collection.
Spring/Summer 1996. Look 19.
Atelier John Galliano, Paris
Collection of Jørgen Simonsen, Paris
Helena Christensen wore the dress for its runway debut. She then wore it again for the Vanity Fair Oscar Party red carpet in 2024 in Los Angeles.
This dress likely inspired the ‘Carnation’ dress from the following ‘Dolores’ Fall/Winter 1995-96 collection, listed in the collection of:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
K. Taylor, Galliano: Spectacular Fashion, London/New York: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020, p. 116 (illustrated)
Materials: synthetic charmeuse fabric
Size 38
Measurements taken flat:
Interior corset- waistline: 25”
Interior corset- bust: 32”
Hips: 18.5” laying flat - 37”
CF length neckline to hem: 58”
CB length neckline to hem: 73”
A magnificently playful and yet demure creation, this gown possesses all of the flair and flattering style we find so much of in the work of John Galliano. This piece seems at once both highly complex and also divinely simple, a really sophisticated piece.
