Marchesa Casati

John Galliano

Why it matters

Galliano conjured the spirit of Marchesa Luisa Casati — the Italian heiress who lived as a living artwork — in a collection of backless velvet gowns in Art Nouveau prints, opera coats with deep mink trim, and a multilayered silver dress with an asymmetric cut and armour sleeve. The show is widely considered the apogee of theatrical couture in the 20th century's final decade. A gown from this collection sold at the 2026 Dior Masterpieces auction for €663,000, setting a world record for Galliano-era Dior.

The rupture

Staged on the grand staircase of the Opéra Garnier and structured as six distinct 'acts' — a Sèvres-porcelain pastoral moving through Venetian palace and masked ball — it established the multi-act narrative show as a couture format. The opening look, a black crinoline, was so vast 'fashion editors ducked as it moved past.' Art Nouveau silhouettes in brocade and velvet, metal armour sleeves, Goossens hand-embroidered Sèvres-cameo buttons.

Defining looks

01Backless velvet gowns in Art Nouveau prints
02Opera coats with deep mink trim
03Multilayered silver dress with asymmetric cut and armour sleeve
04Metallic crown headpiece
05Rose-strewn picture hats

What collectors know

Each couture lot carries its act-and-look notation in the label ('Act I, Look 9') — a precise provenance identifier. The 'Marquis de Roserais' white Calais-lace ensemble, from the Mouna Ayoub Collection, sold for €130,000 against a €15,000–25,000 estimate at Maurice Auction; Kerry Taylor sold a 'Marquis de Botanique' soutache frock-coat from the same collection in June 2022.

Provenance & holdings

Mouna Ayoub Collection → Maurice Auction (€130,000, 'Marquis de Roserais' lace ensemble); Kerry Taylor Auctions, June 2022 ('Marquis de Botanique' frock-coat).

The argument

Galliano partisans canonise the Casati show as the apex of couture ambition; others read it as the permanent departure from couture's client-service purpose. The €130,000 result reflects collector value, not client value — and Galliano filtered Casati through mythology rather than archival accuracy, retrofitting a 1920s eccentric into a 1990s Venetian fantasy.