Margiela's essence has always been transformation. That's why the house is so simpatico for John Galliano. Nowhere else could so instinctively provide the fire from which the Galliano phoenix will rise reborn. And today's Artisanal collection was one more testament to that fact.
The clothes were an elaboration on the Janus-like capacity of human beings to embrace contradictions: ugly/beautiful, caring/cruel, together/apart, chic/scruffy, and, naturally, masculine/feminine. Galliano knows all of that only too well. It meant that these were looks that harbored secrets. Twists and folds created hidden places in the fabric. One striking outfit featured Oriental silks beautifully bunched in the front, but as the model billowed back down the catwalk, we could see there was a substantial coat suspended from straps on her back. The silhouette was extraordinary. Then a recognizable something—a pocket?—would turn out to be part of a jacket that had been reconfigured from a pair of pants. A monastic floor-sweeper, blush pink, was extended into swooping wings in back. Between them nestled a little backpack, cobalt blue. Angels travel light for heaven.
Even when there was nothing there, as in a cobalt blue bib-front dress, it was the back that ruled the look. On another outfit, a gilded wheat sheaf slipped into a draped bow at the nape of the neck added a subtly poetic emphasis. If all of that rear-guard action was the psychological nub of the collection—the closest, perhaps, to where we might imagine Galliano's own head to be at—he was equally artful in his elaboration on Artisanal's traditional commitment to reappropriation. The shoes had lethal pizza-cutter spurs attached. There were dresses made of aesthetically appealing potato sacks. What other designer could put John Steinbeck on a couture catwalk? The distressed tapestry and the skirt of sampler squares rammed the point home. And was that washed leather or plain brown wrapping paper under a dense overlaid mosaic of shattered mirror? Again, what other designer could even compel the asking of such a question?
At the same time, a frond-printed suit and a dress with a twisted bodice and pleated overskirt had a glamour that was straightforward in this context. Artisanal, yes, but a reminder of the appetite that was shaping the design. And such reminders are essential, because this situation is still new and challenging for everyone. It's always been said that growth is pain. Who could know that better than John Galliano? So many questions. But at Maison Margiela, he is transmuting self-awareness into something rich, strange, and true.
