Author | Christiane Nickel
The eponymous, enfant terrible, John Galliano made a gallant return to fashion with his S/S 2015 Couture collection for Maison Martin Margiela. Only the Brave, the group behind Margiela, appointed Galliano as their new creative director last October. In a way this may seem like the perfect marriage. Galliano, openly gay and revered for pushing gender boundaries is conceptually on par with Maison Margiela, unanimously known for his avant garde ideologies and androgynous sensibility.
The major fashion players Anna Wintour, Hamish Bowles and Franca Sozzani came in great anticipation to view Galliano’s London show this past Monday. Reviews were mixed or rather, murky. Then again for a designer who (almost) torched down his career for his insolence, unabashed antisemitism and pathetic drunken overtures, maybe a polite return to the catwalk instead of his usual triumphant blockbuster spectacle would be more akin. Needless to say, the decadent, fantastical and otherworldly designs of Galliano are just as much a part of him as his racist, and antisemitic remarks and stints like wearing a Hasidic-like ensemble the Oscar de La Renta A/W 2013 collection.
This most recent collection labeled Artisanal was intended to be inspired by objects we collect from everyday life. Humor was a peripheral theme with Margiela appliquing toy cars onto a sheath of fabric. Seashells, mirrors and other randomized elements were hoarded onto many of his ensembles resulting in a sculptural, amorphus masses that made you look and get lost. Lost in perplexity and a grotesque beauty beginning to take shape, not lost in the many delusions of grandeur that made Galliano famous in the ‘90s and early 2000s. Much akin to the Margiela house Galliano used leopard print fringed and frayed. Minimalism and deconstruction to central pillars to the house, were playfully employed with his tattered landscapes sculpted into a bustiers. Galliano tiptoed around androgyny, a common thread in the Margiela but it will be interesting to see how this fleshes out into his successive collections for the house.
Overall, the show was effective in reinterpreting the Margiela brand but there wasn’t anything outstanding. Both the identity of Galliano and the house was present but it wasn’t innate. It felt superficial and underdeveloped. Themes that were played out seemed all too literal in the silhouettes and styling. Its the subversive qualities of Margiela and Galliano that make them points of intrigue and controversy which were lacking.
But, for a designer to recreate and interpret a new collection and brand can they necessarily lose parts of themselves and their own social contexts and biases while keeping others? And, in terms of gender non conformity Margiela’s decadent historicized creations that made him the icon he is today will need to abide by the subversive, minimalist and largely androgynous scaffoldings of Maison Margiela. What would that visually look like? You be the judge.
