John Galliano Spring 1999 Ready-to-Wear Collection

Editor’s Note: When we talk about Y2K in fashion we talk about a look, but it’s 1999 that is the turning point. As Nicole Phelps turns her attention to this special year, we are adding five archival shows to the archive.

John Galliano’s spring 1999 show was a Lawrence Alma-Tadema painting come to life as a tableau. A Dutchman, the Victorian painter worked from London and was best known for his stylized yet realistic depictions of the decadence of the Holy Roman Empire. Galliano attempted something of the same by littering the set with lyres, a rain shower, and a bevy of male models lolling in loincloths among rose petals. Encouraged to dance and emote, the models wore clothes that combined references to the classical world, Romeo Gigli, and Mariano Fortuny, yet which, with their 1930s bias cutting, were unmistakably Galliano.