Dior, a flower garden of riotous colour for couture

You wouldn't think of John Galliano as having a green thumb, but the Christian Dior designer delivered an immaculately tended flower garden of riotous colours at the luxury label's fall-winter 2011 haute couture show on Monday.

Full ballerina skirts in baby pink tulle shook like wind-rustled roses, and a rainbow of applique petals in featherlight chiffon enveloped the nip-waisted Bar jackets.

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Galliano also fielded cocktail dresses in cream and navy Delft porcelain print, with upside down tulip shaped skirts in Ceylon blue. Sheath dresses in mohair and boucle were a like a field of wildflowers in bloom. The ballgowns were massive concoctions of petal-shaped tulle, chiffon and droopy lengths of silk - one hand-painted with an oversized peony.

The models - their eyes and lips blooming with rich jewel tones - wore cones of colored cellophane, like a bouquet wrapping, on their undulating upswept hairdos.

"I loved it, I want to be every flower in Galliano's garden," actress Jessica Alba told The Associated Press in a backstage interview. Other A-list guests at Monday's show - held in a tent in the garden of the Rodin Museum - included "Gossip Girl" Blake Lively and Jared Leto.

During the show, Lively, known for her budding interest in fashion, drew little sketches of each passing outfit on her collection notes.

Monday's garden was yet another sumptuous collection for Galliano, who season after season manages to deliver inspired reinterpretations of founder Christian Dior's historic collections.