Year in Review: 2011

In early 2011, John Galliano walked into the La Perle bar in Paris’s Marais district as the creative director of Christian Dior and John Galliano. He left having undermined decades of work as a designer in the course of a drunken, video-recorded anti-Semitic rant. 

Within weeks, Dior sacked the couturier for ‘odious behaviour’, the house of Galliano released its founder, and the man who toppled from fashion’s dizziest heights retreated to rehab. He emerged months later to attend a trial for racism charges that ended with a ‘guilty’ verdict and suspended €6,000 fine. 

Speculation over who could succeed Galliano at Dior hasn’t abated since March. Can anyone replace Galliano? Stay tuned in 2012 to find out...

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Who doesn’t love a wedding? From the announcement of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s engagement in November 2010 to the big event on 29 April, the people of Britain couldn’t get enough. 
The royal wedding catapulted Kate from commoner to Duchess of Cambridge, and sent Sarah Burton’s star stratospheric. The Alexander McQueen designer created a gown that was everything a royal wedding gown should be, and then some. When the gown went on display at Buckingham Palace, ticket fees raised £10m for charity. Plus, Pippa’s butt. Need we say more? 

Click through our gallery for recaps of all the biggest fashion stories of the year...

Despite the weddings of two other proper royals (Zara Phillips and Monaco’s Charlene Wittstock, if you require a reminder), our thoughts veered toward a different sort of royalty. 2011 was the year that fashion and showbiz types couldn’t wait to say ‘I do’. Kate Moss, Lily Allen, Sofia Coppola, Lily Aldridge and Josephine de la Baume walked down aisles from California to the Cotswolds, with John Galliano, Azzedine Alaia and Zac Posen pulling designer duty. All of it inspired our ELLEuk.com wedding blogger...

Click through our gallery for recaps of all the biggest fashion stories of the year...

Christian Louboutin saw red over Yves Saint Laurent’s use of crimson soles, taking the rival fashion house to court over the right to deploy his trademark flourish. Rather than passing down an injunction, the New York judge presiding over the case called the very basis of Louboutin’s trademark into question. With an appeal pending, other colour-linked brands, like Tiffany, are watching and waiting. Hermes, meanwhile, faced a share buying campaign by LVMH. The Birkin maker formed a holding company to protect its shares from further acquisitions.

Click through our gallery for recaps of all the biggest fashion stories of the year...

The Costume Institute’s posthumous retrospective of Alexander McQueen’s work broke every record for attendance at a fashion exhibition. More than 650,000 people visited the show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art—but was it enough to lure the show to London? 

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Every runway had its leading lady this year. Lady Gaga provided the soundtrack and the swagger at Nicola Formichetti’s debut outing at Mugler. And Kate Moss? She stole the show when she sashayed down Louis Vuitton’s A/W ’12 catwalk, smoking a cigarette and leaving an arena of dropped jaws in her wake.

Click through our gallery for recaps of all the biggest fashion stories of the year...