Frighteningly expensive, shrouded in controversy, but are the clothes in John Galliano's first ever Zara collection actually wearable? Fashion editor DINAH VAN TULLEKEN is one of the first to try them

It’s 9am on London’s fashionable Bond Street and I’m in the queue with hundreds of mature, terribly glamorous and wealthy-looking women trailing around the block.We’re not waiting for the doors of an impossibly chic new designer store to open - we’re lining up patiently to be allowed into… Zara.Yesterday Zara launched what could be the most expensive high street collaboration yet - RE(form) Zara, designed by couturier John Galliano. Prices range from £16.99 for a scarf to £699 for an evening dress.And since Galliano is one of the biggest and most controversial names in fashion, the launch (in just two stores, in Bond Street and Madrid) has been shrouded in secrecy.The excitement among my fellow queuers is palpable. As my neighbour in the line puts it: ‘He may not be the nicest person, but this collection is amazing.’ It’s a loaded statement, but one that rather neatly sums up the strange fascination surrounding the 65-year-old British designer.Galliano’s career has been mired in controversy since 2011, when he was sacked by Christian Dior after footage of him making antisemitic and racist remarks to two diners in Paris flooded the internet. He apologised for his behaviour and acknowledged what he described as his personal failure, subsequently rebuilding his career and joining edgy French design house Maison Margiela as creative director in 2014.Just weeks ago, that history was back in the headlines. A planned Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition celebrating Galliano’s work - due to coincide with the 2027 Met Gala, which falls on Holocaust Memorial Day - was cancelled following an outcry from Jewish leaders, politicians and others. Galliano himself said he did not want the uproar surrounding him to overshadow the museum or its Costume Institute.With all this in the background, the arrival of Galliano at Zara is about rather more than just another designer collaboration. Dinah in the ochre 100 per cent silk camisole dress, £99.99 and tulle-and-faux-fur dress, £199 The fashion editor also tried on the purple leather relaxed-fit shirt, £349, teamed with the graphic T-shirt, £59.99 Dinah said of this £699 dress that the 'shape, textures and off-the-shoulder style immediately remind me of Galliano’s work for Zendaya’s 2024 Met Gala look. It’s amazing, but where on earth am I going to wear it?'As I stand waiting on this balmy October morning, I can’t help wondering whether the wait for this haute Zara will be worth it? Particularly as the prices are frighteningly high. A quick glance at the website in the queue and I spy a fabulously cut black overcoat I know I’d wear all winter but it is £469! The most affordable thing I like is a t-shirt for £59.Not that any of these clothes will be available for long. Despite the outcry over Galliano, my neighbour in the queue, a 57-year-old aristocratic blond in a Balenciaga trench, has already logged in online and bought her favourites. She’s only in Bond Street to see the collection in the flesh and nab the pieces that weren’t available when she scoured the site this morning. It’s the black feathered evening dress, for £699, that she really has her heart set on.As a fashion editor I have been to dozens of collaboration launches at high street stores in the past. All of them have queues and all of them are incredibly hyped, but there is something markedly different about this one.Impeccably dressed staff move along the line and apologise for the wait time. In my thrown together work outfit - black tailored trousers and red jumper - I feel underdressed among what is a very well-heeled crowd.Two hours after I arrive, I finally get to the front of the queue. Just 27 people are allowed into the dedicated Galliano ‘showroom’ at one time – but once inside, I’m accompanied through the store by my own personal sales assistant to a showroom at the back of the ground floor.Nobody has any idea I’m a fashion editor at the Daily Mail. To every Zara staff member I meet, I am just another shopper, but almost instantly I feel like a couture client being taken to see clothes made entirely for me. Dinah wearing the 100 per cent wool pinstripe suit blazer, £289, and trousers, £229 'I’ve never been a fan of the sheer trend and feel extremely self-conscious with my pants on show, but this pink guipure dress (£399), layered with the sheer tulle and faux-fur dress doesn’t feel ostentatious,' said the fashion editor Dinah pictured in the 100 per cent wool herringbone coat, £469Once inside, the panelling, mirrors and mannequins make it feel more like an art gallery installation than a Zara store.There are so few people in the Galliano area that, unlike at the current exhibition featuring the Bayeux Tapestry, I can actually see what I’m here to see.Rather than clothes on rails, there’s a beautifully-styled display. Only after I’ve wandered around and decided on the pieces I want to try on with my dedicated sales assistant, will they be retrieved in my desired size for me to take into the changing area.Discreet and knowledgeable, the assistants pick out the key details on each piece of clothing and gently nudge me to try the more adventurous pieces.If I hadn’t walked through the main Zara store it would feel very similar to an hour spent in Prada. Yet the process is an agonisingly slow one. All that running backwards and forwards to the stock room takes time, and the items are selling out before they can get to me. And after half an hour in the gloriously large changing room, I realise I quite like some elements of high street shopping - grabbing an item, trying it on and running off to pick up my lunch afterwards.Plus with all this fuss being made over me I start to panic that I won’t actually like any of the clothes when I try them on. As an understated dresser, the Galliano collection seems way too flamboyant for my taste. This black tulle and dotted-mesh dress is £699 - and the most expensive item in the collection The herringbone coat with fur trim at £469. 'The 100 per cent wool herringbone design is a real statement. It has the feel of a menswear-inspired tailcoat, with an open section through the middle so you’ll have to think carefully about what to wear underneath,' said Dinah Dinah sporting the mixed-fabric pareo skirt, £289I needn’t have worried. The grey pinstripe suit, (blazer, £289 and trousers, £229), is an outfit of my dreams. The cut is incredible and it comes in 100 per cent wool.This £289 mixed-fabric pareo wraparound skirt is a nightmare to get in and out of, but I’m willing to forgive that because I love it. The layered construction and lace-trimmed hem make it much more interesting than your average skirt, and that satin slip underneath means I’m not worrying about it being too short.And then there’s the main event, which is true peacocking in every way: the herringbone coat with fur trim at £469. The 100 per cent wool herringbone design is a real statement. It has the feel of a menswear-inspired tailcoat, with an open section through the middle so you’ll have to think carefully about what to wear underneath.The black tulle and dotted-mesh midi dress, £699, is unlike anything I’ve ever worn or owned. The shape, textures and off-the-shoulder style immediately remind me of Galliano’s work for Zendaya’s 2024 Met Gala look. It’s amazing, but where on earth am I going to wear it?I’ve never been a fan of the sheer trend and feel extremely self-conscious with my pants on show, but this pink guipure dress (£399), layered with the sheer tulle and faux-fur dress doesn’t feel ostentatious. And that sheer tulle layer makes the minimal silk slip wearable too - a protective blanket that makes sheer styles and mini dresses suddenly wearable for those of us over the age of 21. Genius.These are clothes that make you want to dress up - they have presence and attitude. Even the things that look relatively simple on the rail have been given that unmistakable Galliano sense of proportion and drama.All the items are selling out supersonically fast, with the evening dresses being the first to go. A waitlist has already begun before I even leave the store.This isn’t a conventional Zara collaboration, either. It is a two-year partnership, with talk of another drop just before Christmas. When and where is all still hush-hush, cleverly adding to the momentum and hype. The staff in Bond Street were only told this week that people were working on it behind the scenes.There is a sense that Zara is trying to manufacture not just a collection, but an occasion. Scarcity, secrecy, personal service and a carefully designed environment: it is the language of luxury. Only the price tag gives the game away. Yes it’s expensive for any of us who usually shop on the high street but it’s definitely the closest I’ll get to buying designer clothes.And if like me you’re a stickler for fabric quality and cut you’ll know that neither is particularly easy to find on the high street. But here, suddenly, there’s high-quality wool, cashmere and proper tailoring. Clothes designed to be kept rather than simply consumed.For all the theatre, all the controversy and all the hype, the real test is much simpler: do you actually want to wear it? The answer for me and all my fellow queuers is a very emphatic yes.