Anok Yai Brought History-Making Galliano To The Fashion Awards

In 1994, John Galliano presented a career-defining collection at Maria “São” Schlumberger’s Hôtel Particulier in Paris. What happened next remains the stuff of fashion legend. “I hadn’t planned on doing a collection until four weeks before,” the designer recently told a gathered crowd at Vogue’s Forces of Fashion. “I was penniless and sleeping on friends’ floors. Madame Wintour said, ‘John, you can’t miss another season,’ and then my dear friend André Leon Talley started taking me to dinners with amazing society ladies. He introduced me to Dodie Rosenkranz, a patron of the arts, who bankrolled me so that I could afford to buy some satin black crepe. Naomi came with loads of shoes from Manolo Blahnik, and Linda Evangelista not only got up for less than £10,000, but was among the first to arrive at 5am.” Galliano took over Givenchy 12 months later – becoming the first British designer to run a French couture house – and then Dior called 12 months after that. “The whole thing was a dream,” he said.

Photography Henry Goodfellow

Photography Henry Goodfellow

Earlier this week, Anok Yai arrived at the Fashion Awards in a draped mohair jacket and thigh-grazing silk dress from that same, star-making collection. “When I watched a video of the models moving in those pieces, I was enamoured,” the Model of The Year nominee tells Vogue, mere hours before hitting the red carpet. Yai and her stylist, Amir Dayi, sourced the look from Notting Hill’s One Of A Kind Archive. “I have quite a bit of Galliano in my closet and this is one of the rarest I’ve been able to pull,” the model says. “He’s a fashion giant and I always get nervous around him because he’s f***ing Gallino and I try to collect as much of his work as possible.” The last piece Yai purchased was a fringed dress from his spring/summer 1997 Dior collection. Yai – I’m repeating myself here – deserves the same abundance of flowers as Bella, Gigi, Kendall and just about every other new-gen supermodel. “The way Anok moves and carries his clothing does as much justice as the girls did for Galliano back then,” Dayi says. (Consider the grace with which Yai floats across the designer’s spring/summer 2020 Maison Margiela catwalk as evidence.)

Photography Henry Goodfellow

Photography Henry Goodfellow

The gown was worn first by Naomi Campbell in a grubbier (but no less romantic) environment than Anok’s destination, the Royal Albert Hall. “We wanted it to look like some love tryst had gone on, so we lit the venue from outside and left a chandelier crashed on the floor,” Galliano recalled at Forces of Fashion. “Amanda Harlech [the British creative consultant] was running around Paris, collecting dead leaves in bin liners to scatter around the seats we found at markets. These incredibly refined creatures then walked down the stairs and meandered through the room. You could hear the rustle on the taffeta of Christy Turlington’s dress, you could smell the perfume they were wearing.” Yai spritzed herself in Mugler’s Alien Hypersense – “I carry a bottle in every purse I own, it’s an addiction” – and polished off a bowl of green olives and a couple of ginger shots before arriving on the step and repeat. (The clothes remain, but the hedonism of the original supers seems to have faded.) “She’s healthy, babe! We’re gonna keep it cute and sophisticated. It’s a really big night, so I’m just focusing on getting through it.”

Photography Henry Goodfellow

Photography Henry Goodfellow

There might be a little less competition, too. “I can’t wait to see my best friend Mona [Tougaard, who was also nominated for Model of The Year], we’ve literally been texting all afternoon,” Yai says, at which point Touugard calls her phone. “I’m going to be proud of anyone who wins tonight. We all work hard and it’s just a blessing to be nominated.” Yai’s is a flying visit to London, but there is one unexpected destination she always finds the time to visit: Bloomsbury’s 168-year-old, high-end art store L Cornelissen & Son. “It’s the first place I go when arriving here,” Yai, who counts Hugues Merle, Ilya Repin and Alexandre Cabanel among her artistic inspirations, says. “I’m always making art pieces, and the last painting I did was of my friend Daniel Caesar at the Standard Hotel in London.” She’s not publicly revealed these works – mostly portraits, oil on canvas – but there might (might) be an exhibition soon. As for the 2025 Met Gala? “Oh babe,” she says. “I’m just trying to get through tonight.”