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Galliano returns with Maison Martin Margiela

The designer’s long anticipated comeback.

Exiled from Dior and the fashion world four years ago, Gibraltar born designer John Galliano has finally returned to the runway. 

Anticipation was running high to say the very least. Momentum and hype for #MargielaMonday has been building since he was announced as the reclusive brand’s Creative Director months ago. 

Invitations for the exclusive event was offered to only 100 guests, with the show’s audience including the likes of Kate Moss, Alber Elbez, Manolo Blahnik, Renzo Russo, Nicola Formechetti and the woman who orchestrated Galliano’s comeback, Anna Wintour. 

The main question on everyone’s lips was, can the showmanship of one of fashion’s most boisterous designers successfully marry the clean, minimalist aesthetics of Margiela?

The answer: kind of.

With leopard prints, bright reds and lace abundant alongside Victorian silhouettes, golden crowns, eye-catching headpieces and a dress with 3D eyes, the collection was anything if not Galliano. 

The designer did nod to the simplistic and often ironic beauty synonymous with Margiela’s label however with effortlessly draped dresses, tapered pants that play on the androgynous side, and a captivatingly simple red velvet dress. The use of plastics, scrap fabrics and reconstructed blazers also tied into the deconstructive, lost/found aesthetic that Margiela has been using to challenge notions of beauty for years. 

Closing the show was Galliano’s gold-and-jewel-encrusted rendition of the Margiela mask, which acted as a perfect symbol for the merger. Beautiful and captivating and a lending of the extraordinary to the discrete. An undoubtedly stunning collection, though how true it stays to Margiela’s philosophy remains questionable.

The spirit of Margiela was definitely evident in elements of the collection, though essentially it’s a very Galliano interpretation of it. 

www.maisonmartinmargiela.com

 

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