"Meanwhile the team had chosen a couple of conceits to carry them through. One reference was the postmodern Pop patterns the Italian designer Ettore Sottsass invented for his Memphis Group furniture and product design collective in the eighties; another took inspiration from the work of the interior designers Jean-Michel Frank and Jean Dunand; a third was derived from Jean-Paul Goude. All of that—meaning pastel color and jazzy pattern, followed by darker marquetry and malachite prints—was deployed in a team effort to give the spirit of the show a certain brave energy and optimism. Inevitably, though, the lack of a designer’s overarching vision couldn’t be concealed. The fact is that fashion at this much-scrutinized über-level can only be pulled together by the conviction of a strong, inspired, and couture-accomplished visionary. It was hard for anyone present not to feel empathy for the predicament of Gaytten and all the other people Galliano left behind, but equally, this show only served to illustrate the unavoidable fact of great fashion: that a house as important as Christian Dior can’t be led by a team alone."