Pierre Balmain in February of 1959, John Galliano in March of 2010. Photos: Getty Images

While flipping through images of Christian Dior for this story on Raf Simons’ new gig, we inexplicably stumbled upon a photo of Pierre Balmain, above left, dressed as a pirate.  It looks like the designer was having a jolly time at a ball in Portugal in February of 1959.  But there’s really only room for one pirate in fashion at a time, and for the past fifteen years that’s been John Galliano, who led Dior from 1996 to 2011.  Before Galliano (way before),  Balmain spent years working closely with Dior before opening his own atelier in Paris in 1945, so maybe a love of pirates is rooted in the house?  Or maybe Galliano saw this photo of Balmain in the archives and thought, “Yes! That is the look I’m going for!” However it happened, the two appear to be more closely linked than we would have thought and we’re afraid the traditional pirate costume may never be seen again. As romantic as Raf Simons might be, he’s hardly one for a sword.