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Style Points is a weekly column about how fashion intersects with the wider world.
In retrospect, it read like a last hurrah. Under Paris’s Pont Alexandre III this past January, models play-acted as 19th-century roués, French cabaret singer Lucky Love performed live with a gospel choir, Gwendoline Christie strutted in a latex corset, and everyone involved sported gleaming, slightly unnerving glass skin: Brassaï meets sci-fi. It was all part of Maison Margiela’s latest artisanal collection, the house’s answer to couture, and it felt like a time capsule into fashion’s ’80s and ’90s days of theatrical shows and boundless imagination.
Maison Margiela Artisanal 2024.
At a time when newness feels swallowed by the maw of quiet luxury, algorithm-derived taste, and a general clinging to the safe and commercial, the show stood out. But it was hardly new territory for John Galliano. Since he began his fashion career, he has been turning runway shows into bona fide events (think of spring 1994, for which he enlisted Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, and Linda Evangelista and secured São Schlumberger’s palatial home, or his Empress Sisi-inspired collection for Dior spring 2004.)
Spring 2019 couture.
And from his debut at Margiela, he was in full command of his powers, bringing his showman’s spirit to every season. That might mean elevating the most humble of items, like a printed burlap coat and plastic-bag bridal gown from fall 2015—fusing the house’s love for found materials with his own penchant for embellished flights of fancy. Or creating unforgettable characters, from the twisted comic-book heroines of spring 2019 to the the lurching urchins of his 2015 debut. His runway heroines always had backstories—and nearly as much blocking to memorize as a Broadway star.
Over the ensuing decade, he brought us double-wide gowns and Bowie wigs, Bella Hadid styled as a kind of nu-metal Joan of Arc, and unicorn horn-like lace fascinators. Working with ingenious collaborators and co-conspirators like makeup artist Pat McGrath, movement director Pat Boguslawski, and milliner Stephen Jones, he created what he called a “fashion family” of like-minded creatives. And he never forgot that a show should be an experience, not just a sales pitch.
A look from Spring 2015 couture.
When the news came today that he would be stepping down from the house, Galliano saluted what he called “the importance of slow and ethical fashion and the influence it has on all our collections.” While tongues are already wagging about where he will end up next, today it’s worth taking a look back at what he was able to accomplish while uncompromisingly working in an age-old tradition.