With Raf Simons showing his highly anticipated debut collection at Christian Dior this week, his name has scarcely been out of the headlines. What many didn't expect, though, was that Simons would be sharing the spotlight with the brand's former creative director, John Galliano.
Aside from one sighting shortly after his trial, Galliano has been pretty much incognito but this week an Instgram user, Albert Pang, uploaded an image of what look liked AnnaWintour dining with Galliano at the L'Espadon restaurant at the Ritz in Paris. What makes the photo even more interesting is that it revealed that the pair met up on the same day as Simons' Dior debut.
[He] arrived alone and took a seat outdoor[s] where I was, and ordered a drink (not sure what drink, [I] couldn't see it [be]cause I was two tables away). The picture with a few people was someone from the table who knew Galliano, and they said hi. Then about 10 or 15 minutes later Anna Wintour came and she seemed very excited, with hurried steps to Galliano. If I remember correctly, they hugged. But I couldn't hear a thing. Then they moved indoors for dinner.
Does this mean that we might be planning a return? I sure hope so.
Until January, Versace had an eight year hiatus from showcasing their couture collections in a runway format. The last show took place on the stairs of the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris and didn't go down particularly well so yesterday Donatella Versace confirmed that the venue will now change.
On July 1 the brand will play host to two runway shows at the Ritz ahead of it's lengthy closure for renovations. 'It is with tremendous emotion that I return to the Ritz where I shared so many special moments with my brother,' she said in a statement. 'The closing of the Ritz Paris for two years represents the end of an era but also the beginning of a new one, so to be able to show Atelier Versace there one last time will be a memorable milestone.'
As jet setter Anna Wintour gets ready for the S/S collections, struggling publisher, Condé Nast, is considering scaling down expenditure on some of its titles. Yet there will be no such thing for its beloved flagship, Vogue, whose plans regarding the shows “are precisely as they have always been,” a spokesman said.
Lest we not forget that when Wintour travels, she travels in style. "There are amazing dinners planned every night. All important Condés have a driver for the week, usually a new, black Mercedes," a source tells the New York Post. Wintour, who naturally stays at the Ritz, travels with her entourage of ten, who, at twice the size of those of rival fashion magazines, are estimated to cost the company close to $250,000 in travel expenses.
Wintour seems to have ruffled a few feathers in refusing to comply with earlier corporate edicts to cut down on costs. "It's a little bit of a two-tier system over there," said a rival editor to the New York Post. "There's Vogue, and then there's everyone else.”
