Galliano’s Gruesome Opulence Debuts for Margiela Monday
January 15, 2015 for Moda & Estilo, now defunct
In downtown London on what has become known as #margielamonday, online buzzing came to a halt as press and loyal friends filed into the pristinely white showroom. More had been said about the new Maison Margiela (formerly Maison Martin Margiela) collection than any other presentation in London the past week — even before a single model set foot upon the white tile runway. When the Belgian house announced their decision last October to hire John Galliano as its new creative director, effectively resurrecting the designer from a four-year hiatus resulting from his drunken anti-Semitic rant, the worldwide web has since offered an unrelenting stream of feedback and criticism. “How good do John Galliano’s clothes for Margiela have to be to earn forgiveness?” asked The Washington Post. Even Galliano’s loyal press applied such adjectives as “disgraced” and “shamed” when referring to the British designer. Those who refrained from moral pronouncements expressed doubt in Galliano’s artistic flexibility, questioning whether MM had chosen the right successor to carry out Martin Margiela’s minimalistic signature style.
Pressure generally doesn’t bode well for Galliano, and the condemning media storm could only make the highly anticipated collection more difficult to execute. However, it is precisely due to this climate that the MM house provides the best possible environment for the designer; perhaps more than minimalism, repurposing items, or deconstruction, the house’s greatest signature is that of anonymity. Founding designer Martin Margiela always skipped the customary end-of-presentation bow, released statements using the collective terms of “we” and “our” — never “I” — and even refrained from placing tags in the house’s garments. The absence of an overarching personality forced the focus back onto the clothes and the statement they made. Though these extreme displays of humility clash with the Galliano we used to know — that dramatic showman fond of outlandish designs, eager to soak up the applause at the end of each show — it provides the best possible platform for the artist to reenter the industry. After all, it was his designs that first inspired awe in London and beyond, not his personality. Perhaps MM will allow us to reacquaint ourselves with Galliano’s talent, forget the past, and get lost in the clothes themselves.
Maison Margiela’s Artisanal Collection is the house’s answer to haute couture, producing a comparable level of craftsmanship and freedom of imagination without the inhibitive cost. Thus, the stage was set in the most advantageous way for Galliano. Back in his native London, loyalists lined the runway, and the collection had a license of artistic freedom available beyond the brand’s typical prêt-à-porter. Even so, the anticipation was great. Everyone present felt the value of their attendance, for the runway spanned a great length of the room, allowing every seat to be in the front row. Classical music drifted gently over the arriving guests, and though the show started 20 minutes behind schedule, it was only due to the late arrival of Kate Moss.
The first look of the evening felt like a perfect marriage between the Margiela house and Galliano. A sculpted leather sheath appeared almost painterly in its watercolor-like splashes of nude shades. The model glided by in Galliano-style towering heels with ankle straps, the shoes split down the middle between black and nude to mirror jester-like tights. The precious detail that held the winning edge, however, was an embellishment of shiny black toy cars, seemingly strung together and attached with a fine chain of safety pins. This whimsy and innovation, simultaneously referencing Margiela’s penchant for repurposing items and Galliano’s fondness for fun, brought the crowd reassurance that the designer’s skill remained intact and a good fit for the house.
The 24 looks featured another MM trademark: deconstruction. Incomplete black coats revealed flashes of ornate skirts and casual shorts, creating asymmetrical silhouettes in the process. A satin dress appeared slashed to bits, and interjecting swatches of fabric contributed a shabby component of disintegration, helped along by distressed edges and scuffed knees. Between the series of statements were commercially sound staples, including a black masculine pantsuit — just in case anyone was skeptical of Galliano’s tailoring — and relatively relaxed velvet shift dresses in red and black. A floor-trailing red coat with a mandarin collar and square panel patches over each breast made for a modest masterpiece.
Halfway through the collection, clothes came alive with shiny plastic eyes whose shape was built with conch shells. As air cascaded over the garments with the models’ step, the long plastic eyelashes batted playfully. These conch shell faces echoed an Arcimboldo-like theme, wherein faces were built from unexpected objects. The 17th-century Italian artist constructed his faces exclusively with symbolically charged items, and we can only assume that Galliano’s decision to build with trappings of the sea was intentional as well. The sweetness of the theme turned grotesque with another Arcimboldo face emerging, swollen and positively scarlet, from the center of a woolen coat. Eyes rolled in its seashell face, and it gleamed with gummy plasticity from underneath a snail shell crown.
True to Margiela form, the finale emerged with an obscured face. A collage of shiny artifacts, complete with a Barbie dolls head, seemed almost like the nonsensical collection of a child, gleefully displayed on the front of a regal floor-length gown. The recurrence of faces, eerie with their lopsided features and animation, created a sense of unease. Paired with opulent textures and fabrics subtle with decay and decomposition, the collection told the story of a quiet madness.
The crowd did not offer a standing ovation. In a move that walked a diplomatic line between the tradition of Margiela and his habits of old, Galliano merely appeared for a brief bow before swiftly departing in a black car. The magic of Margiela has come into play; Galliano left his testimony in 24 looks, inspiring a range of emotion and reactions, and in the absence of drama or verbal statements from Galliano himself, all that remains is to unpack the strong — albeit not genius —collection he has left us.