John Galliano, the man who once ran Dior, is now signing a collection for Zara. The first line, called "Re{form} Zara Authored by the Couturier John Galliano", came out on 1 October - and with it the fashion industry got confirmation of what social media had already declared: the Napoleon jacket is the trend of the autumn.

The signature elements are military: frogging closures, gold buttons, structured collars, strong shoulders and a fitted cut. It looks like something an aide-de-camp in uniform would have worn in the early 19th century - except that now it's hanging on a rail in a shopping mall.

A return to the 1984 graduate collection

Galliano isn't starting from scratch. The inspiration is his legendary 1984 graduate collection "Les Incroyables", in which he compared young French people after the Revolution with London's "New Romantics" of the eighties. What links the two generations is rebellion: a theatrical, gender-fluid aesthetic against political conformism. That collection had exaggerated proportions, detachable collars with huge bows, colourful waistcoats, wide shirts over narrow trousers and eccentric accessories like monocles and canes.

The new collection is split into three stories told through colour: from classic menswear severity, through organic earth tones, to the intense colours of film noir - fuchsia, turquoise and acid green. Draped dresses in gauze, tulle and lace deliberately clash with structured wool coats and suits.

The shoes reinterpret Zara's archive: pointed styles with brogue details, navy-inspired boots with deliberate creasing, T-bar platforms and elegant low-heeled sandals with a metallic finish.

Haute couture in instalments

Even before the collection, Zara was selling Napoleon jackets in suede, lace and leather, priced from 49.95 to 119 euros. That's exactly the fast-fashion trick: the couture designer's name sells the story, and the story sells the jacket. Galliano is a designer whose career at Dior ended in 2011 after the scandal over his antisemitic remarks - and today his name is on a Zara label.

The jacket is beautiful, no argument there. The question is whether you're buying a design or buying a name. If there was a 50-euro Napoleon jacket on the rails before Galliano, what exactly are you paying for when you ask for the one with his name on it?