Galliano resuscitates silent film stars, giving Chaplin’s little tramp an urban makeover

Chaplin’s Tramp gets urban makeover at Galliano

PARIS — Charlie Chaplin emerged from inside a ticking gears of a massive watch to walk the runway at John Galliano’s silent film-inspired spring summer 2011 menswear show on Friday.

Models in twitching faux mustaches and bowler hats sported urban interpretations of “The Tramp”’s black suits — microfiber jackets paired with drop-crotched pinstripe shorts. Rope belts, dangling pocket watches and dandified suspenders were the season’s must-have accessories.

Standout looks included a Buster Keaton lookalike in a razor-cut gray suit and a little, flat straw hat and a jumpsuit worn with briefs in fish-printed silk.

The show was held inside a former bank on Paris’ tony Place Vendome, a windowless vault of a space that with the warm weather and crush of bodies turned into a sauna. Makeup dripped down faces that had taken hours to prepare as the audience of fashion editors, stylists and journalists melted as they waited for the show to begin.

But as soon as the show-cum-spectacle started, all was forgiven. And when Galliano himself emerged from the inner workings of the timepiece, strutting his stuff in a wife-beater and bluejeans, the sweat-soaked crowd roared with approval.