John Galliano's top 5 fashion shows at Maison Margiela

Yesterday, John Galliano said goodbye to Maison Margiela after serving as creative director for an entire decade. This long collaboration not only represents a very rare case in a fashion landscape where the turnover of creative directors is extremely fast, but it also marked the completion of Galliano's personal and professional redemption after returning triumphantly to the fashion arena following the infamous incident that led him to leave Dior. It also marked his 14 years of sobriety—celebrated by the designer as a major personal milestone in the heartfelt letter posted on his social media yesterday. Over these ten years, Galliano transformed Maison Margiela: beyond the Artisanal collections and many experimental and multimedia formats he explored in presentations, there was the introduction of the genderless Co-Ed line and also a rather flexible working method that allowed him, for example, to focus on certain Artisanal shows for an entire year—a thing unheard of today, but normal a few decades ago. In any case, Galliano’s Margiela always had its own distinct flavor, undoubtedly chaotic, with often tortured styling but capable of turning the classic runway format on its head, bringing us all to a greater appreciation of the more avant-garde side of his fashion, his muses (Galliano introduced the world to the talent of Leon Dame, for example, a male heir to the 90s top models), and also an idea of creativity that was truly intellectual, where the logic of the system might arrive in stores but never on the runway.

To celebrate these ten years, here are the five most beautiful shows by Galliano for Maison Margiela.

1.      Artisanal Spring 2024

The show that will go down in history for closing Galliano's era and being the pinnacle of his career at Margiela, a triumph of twilight aesthetics that somehow reunited the more deconstructivist approach of previous Maison Margiela shows with a completely Gallian-esque narrative romanticism, and above all, an immersive experience. It is impossible not to read in the collection and the show a deeply autobiographical thread, a sense of infinite pity for the outcasts and the forgotten, for the rebels and the excluded, transformed by Galliano into broken and abandoned dolls. To the tune of an Adele song about returning to a city where one grew up but which no longer feels familiar, the collection not only displayed incredible virtuosity and cohesion but also spoke of its creator in such a personal way that one of the few criticisms made about it was that the show seemed out of time, as if it had been lifted from a bygone era. An anachronism we cannot judge—indeed, it should definitely return.

2.      Spring Summer 2020

An excellent show, one of many during Galliano's 10-year tenure as creative director, but with an extra edge. The extra edge came from Leon Dame, whose walk was more akin to mime and theater than the classic model's stride, becoming viral on social media (going viral today is akin to a process of beatification) and marking the moment when Galliano’s Maison Margiela “burst” the fashion bubble and broke into the mainstream culture, bringing attention back to one of the English designer’s trademarks: the dramatic presentation. The show was also remarkable for anticipating at least five years ahead the trend for cropped garments, oversized blazers cinched at the waist with belts, and for its unique ability to blend historical references to 1940s military attire with nuns and nurses into a completely modern context.

3.      Artisanal Fall 2016

All of Galliano’s collections for Margiela have their own beauty, but the Artisanal Fall 2016 collection has something more. The concept of the collection was a kind of historical interpolation, blending the silhouettes, colors, and style typical of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era (one of Galliano's creative obsessions) with technical materials typically found in outerwear, creating a unique connection between the revolutionaries of the past and today’s suburban populations. However, there was no aestheticization of the derelict and marginalized lives: those elements had been distorted into aristocratic and cerebral silhouettes, even referencing the Merveilleuses movement, women from the Directory era who scandalized good bourgeois society by dressing in transparent peplos. A show that almost deserves a monographic study, with references to internal influences, Martin Margiela, history, and society, all compressed into just 26 looks.

4.      Spring Summer 2019

As mentioned in the introduction, one of the milestones of Galliano's ten years at Margiela was the establishment of the Co-Ed collection. This show is significant for the designer, who indirectly referenced it in his farewell letter, saying that the film Mutiny, which accompanied the collection and was also the name of the fragrance presented during this show, represents the culmination of his philosophical and social message. So why was this collection important? Because beyond the beauty of the garments, it marked the beginning of the genderless approach, being Galliano's first co-ed show after he had only presented two menswear collections separately from ready-to-wear and the Artisanal line. This show essentially marked the first instance where the final form of Galliano’s Maison Margiela (which we could also define, as its most concentrated essence, the brand’s parfum) emerged in its current form, also as a commercial force—fusing both the artistic and more commercial aspects of Margiela.

5.      Spring Summer 2021

During the darkest moment of the lockdown, when brands were trying to establish a new format for shows, the SS21 presentation of Maison Margiela marked the beginning of a series of “alternative” and highly artistic fashion films that led the brand to interact with and manipulate the very fabric of what a fashion show meant, blending classic garments with the process of their creation. Specifically, the collection was presented as a kind of choreographed drama, entirely based on tango dancers dressed in looks that were almost modest by Galliano’s standards, yet possessing an eerie and sepulchral charm, imbued with a sense of tragedy that was completely original.