With much of the fashion world talking about the return of John Galliano for Maison Martin Margiela after his four year “hiatus” following his scandalous anti-Semitic remarks it’s hard to ignore this as news (If you’re unfamiliar with the whole story then check it out here).
He pulled quite a crowd with big name FROW-ers such as Kate Moss, Manolo Blahnik as well as other industry big-wigs like Lanvin’s Alber Elbaz, Burberry’s Christopher Bailey and designer Jasper Conran. For me, as expected the collection was a little “weird”, while I applause creativity I’m not sure how any of these runway looks would quite work in my wardrobe and they remind me of some of the designs that come out of Project Runway!
As Vogue UK Editor-in-chief Alexandra Shulman wrote, “The restrained number of outfits played with deconstruction and the tenets of tailoring, salvage and restitution, luxe and tatters. A breastplate of shells might have adorned a trash-can Boadicea, a dress of carved black leather ribbons fell away into a tattered train. While a Principal Boy opened the show in Harlequin leggings of black and flesh it was closed by a ghostly empress, veiled and silenced by a pearl and bronze mouthguard.”
Whoa! Sounds trés confusing and little all-over-the-show. However, I’m sure that Galliano will find the balance between his own loud creative flair for the dramatics and Martin Margiela’s more calm, quiet, practical and serious aesthetic. After pouring over the images this morning, I’m not crazy about the dramatic, circus-like pieces – most of it looks like a cut-and-paste-art-and-craft project from my four-year-olds kindergarten class, however I am glad to see red back in the mix and hope that this will inspire a string of high-street brands to brighten up collections for next winter.
For more images and Suzy Menkes’ amazing voice … http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/2015/01/12/suzy-menkes-galliano-margiela
