One of the most illustrious names in the history of fashion, John Galliano, who is currently serving as the creative director of Maison Margiela, is responsible for bringing haute couture back to the runway.
Yesterday, on Thursday, the most recent SS24 couture collection from Maison Margiela was presented for the first time in a catwalk display that can only be described as theatrical and bizarre. The show took place beneath the Pont Alexandre III in Paris. Galliano was able to capture the nighttime ambiance of Paris by utilizing the natural moonlight and the concrete streets of the city. He did this by making the architecture of the city the backdrop for his gorgeous design.
The runway show was described as “a walk through the underbelly of Paris, offline” in the press release that Maison Margiela issued about the new collection.
Galliano’s Margiela presentation was not a standard runway show that was simplified by the “quiet luxury” invasion of the fashion business; rather, it was a completely intoxicating performance that produced an energy that was so palpable that it transcended through thousands of recordings that are circulating online.
Galliano successfully evoked the essence of Brassaï’s renowned pictures, which portray the more controversial aspects of the nightlife scene in Paris. The models created by Galliano made their way from the streets of Paris to a run-down “speakeasy” that had been manufactured just for the event. It was as if a picture by Toulouse-Lautrec had been brought to life.
The evening started with a dramatic musical performance by “Lucky Love,” a drag queen and impersonator of Freddy Mercury from France. This was followed by a short film directed by Baz Luhrmann that was shot in black and white.
Leon Dame, who has been a prolific model for Margiela since 2018, opened the show wearing a corset that was so tight that it bound his spine. He seemed to be running away from something evil as he sprinted down the runway, holding his body, and then striding forward.
Dame’s theatrics served as a source of inspiration for the models that walked the runway. Some were hunched over as if they were in misery, others were teetering down the runway as if they were about to fall over, some walked gracefully, and some moved stiffly as if they were being controlled by an all-knowing puppeteer or animatronics.
The models were all of different body types, but not in a way that felt like they were being performed, which was a novel approach for Galliano himself. Rather, the differences in body types of the models displayed the shaping of the clothing in a variety of different ways, which contributed to the collection’s distinctive lines.
Pat McGrath, a renowned makeup artist, executed the doll-like makeup for the show. He gave the model skin that was glossy and latex-like, giving the impression that it was plastic. This gave the impression that the models were animatronic dolls that had been brought to life.
Disheveled hair and doll-like skin gave the entire event a transcendental vibe, evoking an atmosphere of a bygone underground Moulin Rouge Paris through the haunting ghosts of Paris’s past. The show was a complete success.
The performance was brought to a close by the actress Gwendoline Christie, who wore a latex gown and portrayed a porcelain doll with paper-white skin and blonde ringlet curls.
Galliano spent a year designing this new collection, which underlined the boundaries and malleability of the human form. The collection featured models wearing painful-looking corsets that pulled their bodies in ways that were not of their natural nature. Completely translucent clothing that resembled chiffon was juxtaposed with heavier pieces such as trench coats, scarves, and sweaters; yet, the concept of silhouette-shaping corsets remained consistent throughout the whole collection.
According to the press release, Galliano developed fifteen revolutionary compositional approaches to bring his vision to life. Some of these techniques include “seamlace,” “milletrage,” and “retrograding.”
The couture display was reminiscent of the dramatic and avant-garde shows that Alexander McQueen and Galliano were known for in the 1990s; it has been a while since the fashion world has seen anything of that caliber until last week, and certainly not since the emergence of social media. The show was a tribute to the fashion industry.
Since joining Maison Margiela as its creative director in 2014, Galliano has maintained a very low profile. This is because he was ousted from his historic term as design director at Dior in 2011 due to an antisemitic outburst.
Galliano is known for presenting his camp, dramatic fashion presentations with historical pointers to bygone times. It appears that Galliano is returning to his M.O. with the most audacious collection he has produced in decades. This collection is reminiscent of what made him an icon in the first place and continues to captivate fashion aficionados all over the world.
For those members of Generation Z who are passionate about fashion and have only witnessed Galliano’s and McQueen’s theatrical catwalk displays through archival films, publications, or essays, this show is a revival of haute couture that evokes feelings of nostalgia from the magic of the 1990s runway. Nevertheless, although possessing clear historical themes, the concert had a surprisingly contemporary and forward-thinking feel about it.
It was written by Mark Guiducci, the Creative Editorial Director of Vogue, that the SS24 couture collection by Maison Margiela is “The John Galliano Show My Generation Has Been Waiting For.”
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