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 05/17/2008
Fashion legend John Galliano honored at annual SCAD fashion show
SAVANNAH, Ga. — The Savannah College of Art and Design honored fashion legend John Galliano at the college’s annual fashion show Saturday, May 17, at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. at Trustees Theater, 216 E. Broughton St.
Vogue editor-at-large André Leon Talley and SCAD President Paula S. Wallace were pleased to present Galliano with the André Leon Talley Lifetime Achievement Award. Accepting the award on Galliano's behalf at the 8 p.m. show was Katherine Ross, senior vice president, public relations and communications, LVMH. Galliano was unable to accept the award in person due to falling ill the evening before the award ceremony.
“John was honored and proud to be given this lifetime achievement award,” said Ross. “He is devastated and disappointed not to be able to share this honor with the university, students and André.”
Talley’s praise of Galliano was effusive. “John Galliano is a great visionary who lights creative fires that warm the human spirit. I can say there is no greater talent in the sphere of high fashion. He has influenced the global sensibility of what fashion is in our times.”
In May 2000, the college honored Talley with a Lifetime Achievement Award. The award was renamed to include Talley’s name and has been presented successively to fashion legends Oscar de la Renta, Karl Lagerfeld, Miuccia Prada, Tom Ford, Vera Wang and Marc Jacobs. In 2004, Zac Posen was honored with the André Leon Talley New Look Award. Talley is a member of the SCAD Board of Trustees.
In 1995 Galliano was named creative director of Givenchy, where he was responsible for women’s haute couture and prêt à porter collections. He was hailed as the savior of couture, and in 1996 he was named creative director of France’s most prestigious couture house, Christian Dior. The first taste of his very own “new look” was unveiled in December 1996, when Diana, Princess of Wales, wore his very first Dior design to Dior’s 50th anniversary gala opening at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In 1999 Galliano was made creative director for all women’s lines at Dior, including bags, leather goods, shoes, lingerie and advertising campaigns, which he produced with photographer Nick Knight. In 2001 he was appointed creative director for Dior Parfums campaigns and direction, and he celebrated his 10th anniversary at the house of Dior in 2007.
TIME magazine named Galliano “the most influential fashion designer of his generation,” and Vogue Editor-in-chief Anna Wintour said of him, “There are few creative people in the fashion world who, through their spirit, their creative joy and their personalities, really give fashion what it needs – some inventive madness.”
His shows remain one of the most coveted invitations in town, his collections taking inspiration from China, Mexico, Russia, Japan and India as well as his homelands.
More than 100 undergraduate and graduate students vied for one of almost 50 prestigious slots in the SCAD fashion show, which has become one of the top student fashion shows in the country. Selected by a jury process, the students’ work was critiqued every step of the way from sketches to garments by some of the top professionals in the fashion industry, including designers Lela Rose, Eric Gaskins and David Rodriguez; Michael Fink, vice president of women’s fashion at SAKS; and Ruffian designers Brian Wolk and Claude Morais.
The SCAD fashion show is the culmination of SCAD Style, the college’s month-long style and design series of events highlighting several of the college’s programs of study, including fashion, interior design and architecture. The series kicked off with the annual SCAD Style Étoile Awards, which honored interior designer and potter Jonathan Adler, Elle Décor Editor-in-Chief Margaret Russell and fashion designer Pierre Cardin.
World-renowned artists, designers and industry professionals visited the college’s Savannah and Atlanta locations during SCAD Style, including architect Frank Gehry; Studio SUMO founders Yolande Daniels and Sunil Bald; designer Karim Rashid; interior designer Amy Lau; handbag designer Claire Sanchez; Wall Street Journal Senior Special Writer Teri Agins; Jerrie Marcus Smith and Allison V. Smith, daughter and granddaughter of the famed marketer and retailer Neiman Marcus; and Museum of Modern Art curator Paola Antonelli.
Media inquiries may be directed to Sunny Nelson at 912.525.5225.
The SCAD fashion department partners with innovative designers and critics, and brings visiting industry professionals to network with students. The fashion department is a “style lab” in design education and innovation, balancing the development of a student’s creative and intellectual skills with necessary practical and professional training specific to the needs of the global apparel industries. Alumni have started successful labels, won prestigious awards and landed jobs working for some of the biggest names in fashion today.
Named one of Kaplan’s “25 cutting-edge schools with an eye toward the future,” the Savannah College of Art and Design is a private, nonprofit, accredited institution with locations in Atlanta and Savannah, Ga., and in Lacoste, France. Undergraduate and graduate degree programs also are offered online through SCAD-eLearning. The college offers Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Fine Arts, Master of Architecture, Master of Arts, Master of Arts in Teaching, Master of Fine Arts, and Master of Urban Design degrees.
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