Galliano Takes a Stab at Margiela, Only One Face Goes Masked

On Monday of this week, among the deluge of Fall menswear collections that are currently on preview at the bi-annual Pitti Uomo, John Galliano discreetly slipped into the arena with his Spring 2015 couture collection for Maison Martin Margiela. The response to it has been underwhelming if not eerily quiet. It is fascinating that such eminent news within fashion — a designer who has been celebrated as a genius and then deserted as a racist taking over another Parisian house — could slip under the radar. It should ostensibly cause the same kind of brouhaha that Raf Simons at Dior or Ghesquière at Louis Vuitton, or Marc Jacobs at…Marc Jacobs did.

And so far, with a first attempt at the label’s Artisanal adjunct, it hasn’t.

So here’s the question: is this stillness deliberate — an acknowledgement of unrelenting change, the dedication to honoring the privacy of the house of Margiela — or is the collection, with its denim cut offs and leopard print underlays, red splattered arteries (a nod to a new chapter for Galliano of utter transparency?) and one feathered head piece just simply unremarkable?

The clothes no doubt appear to embody some of the escapist decadence with which Galliano has historically designed. Possible, however, is a sloppy tack-on of the incognito attitude of the Margiela of yore. I’m thinking specifically in regard to the facial jewels, the nasal jewelry and one closing mask that depicts the face of, presumably, a dead king who was once a fan of the-also-late Biggie.

There are moments where Margiela’s deflection of a conformed gaze is represented: a red triad of three floor length sack dresses, or one of black suits (one boasting effusive arm hair), and an embellished arm cast from look 13 which actually successfully strikes the hypocrisy of the anterior with its precise cocktail of quotidian impracticality. But like a jolted non sequitur, the extravagant moments of Galliano leave one wondering if the large hats and a tiger print, gold hair and what appear to be fragments of torn tulle are just manifestations of what the designer is fighting to sew into the DNA of a brand he’s only just met.

Images via Style.com