via the cut"That feeling of a film fading or a fairy tale ending has never seemed so powerful and elegiac at this fashion house as it did after the poetic parade that John Galliano sent out on Monday," Menkes writes of yesterday's spring 2010 Dior couture show, which referenced equestrianism, Charles James, and the era of the Gibson Girl. "There was nothing equivocal or compromising: It was the haute-est of couture," Menkes adds. Yet she wonders why Galliano always looks to the past for his collections. "[F]or all his genius, Mr. Galliano refuses to click on the modern world’s reset button or drag his icons to a new place ... [I]t would be a fine thing if Mr. Galliano could just once make the starting point of Dior couture not fashion’s sweet memories but a clean sheet of paper on which he writes 2010."