- It's super relaxing in here, it's great.
I mean, I come here to reconnect,
stay in the present,
pull out my favorite V&A book,
and dream.
I love to surround myself with objects.
For they inspire.
Not just the energy they bring with them,
but my relationship to them.
Where I found them,
the excitement of the unknown,
that one key in a door that opens the door
and opens another door and another door.
The hunt, if you like.
They create a dialogue and they stir emotions.
And when those emotions are stirred, I'm able to create.
I'm John Galliano,
and today I'm really happy to share with you,
some of my objects of affection.
Objects I've collected through the years,
whether it be traveling historically or geographically.
[Suspenseful music]
[door creaks]
Come on, Gyps.
Hello.
Here we are, in a room that used to be a winery,
which is where the monks lived in the 1700s.
And I would like to share with you
this collage, that I produced.
I was very lucky to meet
a fabulous lady called Madam Sherack.
That's Gypsy, she has a cold.
Excuse us.
She was running the museum in her van,
a Museum of Aubserson.
And I was fascinated with the tapestries and it was there
that I was introduced to these pieces of art
really, called Cartoons.
Cartoons are the fast expression
if you'd like that the artists would make in goulash paints,
sometimes you'll find borders or panoramics, landscapes,
and I've kind of cut them up, them,
put them together to create this collage.
And I love the idea that Trembley effect,
if you like of the real trees,
swaying and refracting in their light.
And then this imagine front,
but I was thinking the idea of outside in
and the inside out, and it works.
It works. It's super relaxing in here.
It's great. I mean, I come here to reconnect,
stay in the present,
pull out my favorite V&A book and dream.
I would love to introduce you to my favorite house guests.
She's in a really good mood today.
So we're all super happy because yesterday her favorite hat
was sent to Paris and it was biked over this morning.
So she's super thrilled.
And I'd love to introduce you to Auntie.
Auntie is an artist model.
Auntie is 110 years old.
My sternest is critic and she does all the fittings with me.
I found her in my mathra,
and I kind of liked to imagine that maybe she was
struck a pose and inspired some of those younger artists
who would have frequented that area.
This is Auntie.
[music]
Well, these are called Sudare,
1750's is I think from a Japanese monastery,
the best fun was choosing the accessories.
Some of them are even trimmed with gold Lamé ribbons
from Coco Chanel.
I was very lucky to meet a fabulous lady called
Lilu Markham.
And she invited me to have tea with her.
At that first tea the most wonderful thing happened.
I don't know if something fell out of her pocket
or it was already on the floor, I really can't remember.
And she picked it up and it was like a little Cochon,
a little pig and she offered it to me.
And while offering it to me,
she informed me that it had been given to her by Coco.
[Music]
So along the walls, you'll see a collection of paintings,
drawings, Zack Morales, photographs.
That mean a lot to me,
that mean a lot to me because they stir emotion.
And when emotions to start, I can start to create.
And over here,
you'll see a fantastic black and white picture by Mr. Penn,
Irving Penn,
who I have the greatest pleasure and honor to meet
and to work with, often when I've been stuck
on complicated dresses and things,
I just, I, come on John, you got to work the site,
you've got to get this one because Mr Penn's
going to photograph it,
and somehow his energy penetrates me
and the creative process. And I always finish the dress.
So I like to have the spirit of Mr. Penn in the room.
I always try to work out the light and
how do he do this? And how was that and this shape.
And then when I saw the way he worked
and that it was with God's light,
with the real light and that he would paint like a
watercolor and around you, it's really special.
I mean, there's good energy.
This is a wonderful fashion illustration
by a gentleman called Howard Tangye.
Howard is now retired but up until not so long ago,
he was still the life drawing the fashion,
illustrating tutor at St. Martin's school of art.
I spent a lot of time with Howard. You know you feel him
breathing down your shoulder and neck.[laughs]
My drawings were quite labored to begin with
as they often are.
So he would give me a lot of tests if you like,
okay John we've got 60 seconds here.
I want you to get the spine down,
Map out the head and the hip and speed drawing.
I didn't really understand what was going on,
but it was training the Retina to stay on the subject
and never look down at the paper.
And it was Howard who was really, kind of build me up,
build me up, build me up to become a fashion illustrator.
[Birds chirping]
I'd love to invite you into the salon jean.
That room has a wonderful energy,
and this is a fantastic yellow inspired from Pipi de Vache.
So they would feed the Cows mangoes.
We've got a nickname for the Salon jean
and that's Madame du Pigeon's salon.
Like with a lot of my collections, I created a narrative.
I wanted to produce some Lumiere and also something that
looked like it had been here when we moved in.
It hadn't.
I worked with a fantastic artist called Eloise Viljoen.
I told him my fantasy, if you like,
and the obsession with the 1700's
and the idea to create this artwork,
she had to find a place that
would be able to cook these tiles.
We had found an oven that would take on the
number of tiles required so that it would all match.
It was quite a number to produce, but I think you'll agree,
it looks like it's been here forever.
That gives me great, great joy to contemplate
and lose myself in the story.
The young boy, watering his potate
and offering flowers to the lady of the manor.
I would love to introduce you to
one of my favorite images ever.
It's an image by Brassai
and it's of Madam Bijou.
Madam la Bijou has inspired many a collection.
I still lose myself in this image, the volume of the coat,
the hat, the valve, the jewels, the fallen stockings,
the tap dancing shoes. I mean,
it's just an endless dialogue with Madam la Bijou,
she's amazing.
[Music]
I'm so happy to have shared these things with you.
I guess what one could learn from this is
how much objects of affection mean to me
and how through the dialogue I create and how I juxtapose
certain things, they stir emotion,
and it's a magical place to be.
Thank you.
[music]