Fans of metal apocalyptists Slipknot would effortlessly relate to the masking, the distortion, the primal throb of Galliano’s collection. For the rest of us, there was an eye-popping trawl through the wreckage of Western civilization. Cormac McCarthy might clap at the parade of cannibal boys in crowns strung together from bits and pieces of trash, or the mannequins transmogrified by exploding skeins of wool and streams of oil. Galliano said he’d been inspired by a cache of Irving Penn photographs of Peruvian tribespeople he discovered in Buenos Aires. The fact that he attached the inspiration specifically to a passage of his otherwise-prosaic underwear shows that there can be a business method behind the showman's madness.
