THERE was a distinct lack of clapping at this afternoon's Dior show - the first ready-to-wear collection to be presented by the house since Galliano's departure - but that may have been more due to us wilting in the heat than it was due to disapproval. (It's 33 degrees now and Net-A-Porter has just sent an email to all editors telling us that we can buy emergency summer clothes and have them delivered free to our hotels by Sunday should we need to.)
In fact, the collection - created by the Dior team headed up by Galliano's former right-hand man Bill Gaytten in lieu of an official announcement about who, eventually, will take up the headline job - went down rather better than we thought it might after an outraged and universal panning of the Dior Couture show in July.
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"I thought it was really pretty: wonderful light eveningwear - it was a great leap forward from the couture show, particularly with the light treatment of lace and chiffon," said Lucinda Chambers afterwards. "I could see it all on the red carpet."
It played very, very safe - the long white glossy catwalk was surrounded by a few white LEDs - a world away from the pomp and ceremony of a Dior-by-Galliano show - with full skirts and boat-necked, collarless jackets of frayed tweed belted in narrow leather or chains over them. Demure, proper, grown-up and understated, this was no bid for big stories.
Full tweed coats, leather cloche hats by Stephen Jones and organza skirts in palest blue and grey had a classic demeanour - it was Fifties glamour unsullied by bad behaviour - or fun, in fact - and uncompromising in quality.
There was lots of leather - for red sleeveless tops or jackets over tailored trousers that stopped short of the ankle to show off chain-embellished heels.
The eveningwear was much more light-hearted and relaxed the atmosphere with red chiffon party dresses, vertical ruffles of light nude wool that skimmed the body and light-as-air gowns of pale green, black and white or nude that featured lace under layers beneath multiple layers of chiffon that were as sexy as they were romantic.
The girls - including Karolina Kurkova, who opened, Karlie Kloss and Hollywood wife Miranda Kerr - had soft chignons and were perfectly preened, just as you'd expect them to be. Gaytten took a shy bow at the end and that was that - Dior without Galliano lives on, while we wait for the next story to break.
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