Maison Margiela Spring 2017 RTW. John Galliano challenged us with his vivid imagination for Maison Margiela’s latest sci-fi offering.
Spring 2017 marked John Galliano’s fourth women’s collection for Maison Margiela, and in that time he’s given the house a radical makeover, injecting it with his sense of fearless creativity, vivid imagination, endless research, skilled execution and most of all, a stratospheric level of talent. Galliano is known to mash up high and low—but certainly raises the bar on athleisure. The streetwear-disrupter was in charge this season, intent on the challenge of mixing up everyday clothes in ways we’ve never seen before, even at the risk of making nonsense of them.
This season, Galliano challenged our reading of the familiar in a collection that was compelling to watch. Inspired by sportswear and historical references, he stimulated nostalgia and innovation in equal parts. Case in point: he worked elements of sport in with other basics — decorative swim cap, knit maillots, neoprene and wetsuit zips, but headsets and ear pieces, futuristic scuba boots and metallic lips added an otherworldly edge. Along the way, there were raincoats turned inside out, mesh gloves, haute yoga mats, and space age sportswear galore, while his palette ranged from hi vis yellows to jewel-toned metallics.
There was also a sense of the intergalactic in the beauty – legendary make-up artist Pat McGrath applied sweeping lines of glittery, pastel-hued make-up around the models’ eyes. At the same time, the Margiela muses modelled brightly-coloured headsets, silver earrings that looked like elf ears and the kind of goggles you used to wear in science class.
It seems that this season’s Margiela girl is a part of parade of fashion-sci-fi. This collection was loaded with fabulous real clothes, and there were great looking bags, to boot. Among his other distinctions, this show was definitely a visual feast.