John Galliano: Maharaja Party Tiger (Fashion Wire Daily)

Paris - There was absolutely nobody from the world of work in Friday nights John Galliano Homme show, which is precisely one of the reasons it was so great.

Let other, infinitely more mundane, design talents cut the suits for next summer, leave it to Galliano to dream up the clothes hipsters and fete freaks really want to pull on when they head out for a good time.

Galliano sent a cast of characters onto the runway, in a go-cart arena in industrial north Paris, ranging from Brick Lane dandies to arty posh punkers to Indian colonial civil servants who just happen to spend their evenings in Japanese rap clubs.

Adding to the excitement was the fact that Johns deconstruction techniques have rarely been better in mens wear, most coolly a blazer meets basketball mesh shirt, created spectacularly in violet or electric blue.

One thing that sets John apart from most mens designers is that he beautifies and soups up his male models as much as his gals - so we get mens makeup, wigs and hats made of mini Coke Zero cans. Too many designers still believe – hard to figure, but true – that real men” are not interested in fashion. Galliano, on the contrary, gets that straight guys really dig clothes and arent afraid of a taste of outlandish edge.

So we get high tech brothel creepers in garish contrasts of black and orange, tartan double-breasted jackets with Jaipur gold trim and pajama pants finished with multi-colored Pearly Men patterns,

But if this show had any hero it was the late, great Quentin Crisp, who appeared in the designers Galliano Gazette newspaper print dressing gowns, Gurkha kilts and a series of divine wigs, topped by absurdist knit or woven trilby hats in purple or cerulean.

Crisp, author of the greatest gay coming of age autobiography, "The Naked Civil Servant," would have loved this show. It was a charming testament to his heroic honesty and a great bunch of clobber to celebrate, well, life.