Leah Gilbert
Edited by Ella Querin
It was a perfect close to Paris Couture Week 2024: John Galliano’s Artisanal collection for Maison Margiela. The line between a fashion show and a dramatic performance was ultimately blurred; the show’s opening model, Leon Dame, was the leading man with his iconic walk. Margiela has a particular standard walk that exudes the tone of their collection which they require be performed by the models strutting their runways; a reputation which began with Leon Dame himself when he closed MM’s Spring/Summer 2020 show. When Dame stepped on that runway in 2019, he cemented himself as a name to watch in the fashion industry and all eyes were on him during Margiela’s show this season for a performance of the same calibre.
John Galliano’s masterful work was once again the centrepiece of this transcendent new collection. There were many aspects of this show that made it outstanding, Pat McGrath’s skillful makeup being one of them. While in most couture shows the clothing is what shines most; here, Galliano’s designs shared the spotlight with the model’s china doll-like, glistening makeup looks. With thinned eyebrows, colourful eyeshadow, and what has come to be coined as ‘glass skin’, familiar faces like that of British actress Gwendoline Christie were essentially unrecognisable on the Margiela runways thanks to McGrath.
The runway experience was edgy, a fusion of the romantic and the macabre. The show took place under the Pont Alexandre III bridge in Paris, with coffee tables scattered on the barren ground, the scene painted was one of what Vogue called a “rancid Parisian nighttime”. The audience, seated at tables among one another, witnessed the entirely Galliano created show which was – according to the show’s house notes – inspired by French-Hungarian photographer Bassaï’s portraits on Parisian nightlife in the 1920s and 30s.
Of the many beautiful details featured in this show, the aspect that peaked my interest most was the modelling. Leon Dame’s walk in the SS20 show was the catalyst for Margiela’s reputation of eclectic walks. This Artisanal show certainly lived up to this reputation. In his opening walk, Dame played the character of a man on the run. Having prefaced the show with both a musical performance and a short, sensual, violent, and mysterious video to preface the show openers backstory, Dame began his walk by sprinting onto the runway. He then stopped in his tracks, buckled over out of breath, and then slowly but surely stood up straight, scanned the audience suspiciously, and began his walk, left hand on hip. As he walked down the initial part of the runway, he struck a number of stoic poses, using the unique setting of the show as a prop.
What first struck me about how the models took to this runway was the interplay between the models and the audience. Dame was not the only one of the show’s models to get up close and personal with the audience, sitting on the tables, as they were seated at and he looked into their eyes. Whereas most models for couture shows are under strict orders to stick to the traditional script, with a straight face and not look at the audience at all costs; Margiela rejected all those customs. The models were breaking a sort of 4th wall, eliminating the separation that is traditionally present between those on the runway and those in the audience. A recurring theme that I noticed among the models’ different walks was a sense of not wanting to be seen and attempting to hide themselves from the audience, an ironic juxtaposition with the inherently performative nature of a fashion show.
Let’s talk clothes. The show’s male models wore dress pants, newsboy caps, and corsets – some outfits tied together with a trench coat. The female models’ outfits were more varied. The first round of female models wore a variety of mesh dresses with corsets underneath accompanied by hair-like headpieces. Following those looks were ones of extravagant business-chic; oversized blazer and pencil skirt combinations were paired with fascinator-style headwear. The final round of female models all wore blue and white striped dresses of different designs, all of which involved a corset aspect. Some female models also had porcelain neckpieces of a variety of colours and a commonality among all of the women who donned the runway was prosthetic hips, an imitation of the ideal female shape of a woman in the 1920s and 1930s. One female model who stood out to me was dressed in a completely sheer dress, her entire naked body for all the audience to see, but her face covered with a mask, keeping the model anonymous.
In obvious Maison Margiela fashion, included in the stunning featured footwear, were their signature tabis. What was not classic about the show’s footwear were the shoes’ red bottoms; Maison Margiela and Christian Louboutin collaborated to design all of the shoes for this collection – yet another exciting layer to the show.
This show was utterly fascinating to watch and unlike any other couture show I have seen before. The beautiful clothing was just one aspect of the extremely layered and unique show. Galliano’s attention to detail and creativity are commendable and the models, did an exceptional job of bringing his vision to life. Even when watching the show through a computer screen, I could tell that it was a special experience for audience members, one capable of changing one’s conception of high fashion and I truly wish I could have been under that bridge, sitting in front of Dame, myself.
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