Maison Margiela Spring/Summer 2017 Couture Review

     Every season John Galliano for Maison Margiela just gets better and better as a collaboration. Galliano is a sheer genius no doubt, and the Marigela house codes of anonymity, deconstruction, and storytelling fit perfectly. This season, Galliano and the Margiela team explored the way a garment is constructed for their "Artisianal" collection, as well as the filters we put on clothes today. It all started with fabric manipulation; how the garments were pulled apart to create something new. These new creations were strapped together, warped, and buttoned in a modern way. The multiple types of fabrics were all jumbled together, dissarranged like patchwork with high contrasts. Strips of silk and wool were draped everywhere on the body and into the model's hair. As the collection progressed, intricate crystal detailing came woven in and red fabric was introduced. A few of these red looks seem to reference Galliano's first collection for Marigela only two years ago, the "Artisianal" Spring 2015 collection. These looks were mostly in tulle, with a reoccurring face motif. However these faces were morphed and edited in the same way Snapchat filters do. It is interesting to see a highly-regarded designer like Galliano to directly reference something that seems so silly, but it is surely a sign of our times and a token of our culture. The faces became more abstract, as fabric began to billow around the models like fog, until a beautiful face made of tulle by artist Benjamin Shine came out on a clinically white coat. For the finale, the doors at the end of the catwalk flew open, to reveal a massive black sphere of floating fabric, like a storm cloud, that cascaded over the audience when spun around. A cohesive and extraordinary collection done by an extraordinary collaboration. 

Maison Margiela Fall/Winter 2015 Couture Review

     The house of Margiela's most recent couture collection was, in my opinion, the greatest couture show I've seen this season. I believe it brought back what couture was originally intended for, which is to create new ideas and pushing the fashion forward. The couture in this show blended textures and textiles, repurposed materials (something Margiela has always been known for), and created graphics that truly created something show-stopping. To me, this collection seems like one of the greatest experiences that can come from the fashion world once in a blue moon. Hybrid shoes held together by theater zip ties, deconstructed men's blazers, plastic finale wedding dresses, and graphic makeup all created a sort of fantasy that transcended clothes. John Galliano, as well as the other members of the Maison, really outdid the strange previous collection (Fall/Winter 2015 Ready-to-Wear).They did so by creating powerful and strong images with bold models who weren't afraid to show their stuff. John Whiles, Carl Hjelm Sandqvist, and Roan Louch were the most interesting of the models because they were, in fact, men in couture. I personally believed that this fact pushes the boundaries of couture without being too gimmicky and showy. I'm rather obsessed with the gender fluid idea of couture and all fashion, as transgendered people's rights and gender fluidity are gaining attention. Besides all of that however, the clothes themselves held a transformative power on their own. The absolutely beautiful pieces transcended an era of time or a culture of a previous existence, rather they were created in way that was totally original, which is why this collection is important.