Review: Can Fashion Recover from the Impact of Maison Margiela ‘Artisanal’ Spring Couture 2024?

Text by Ana Beatriz Reitz

Have we become so used to ordinary and plain presentations without provocation or risk?

If there was anything that no fashionista could predict during 2024 Haute Couture week, it was the definitive walking paintings seen in Maison Margiela's Spring 2024 couture collection. It not only closed the couture week but did so with a flourish.

The spectacle, which took us to the realm of Galliano's imagination, started with a presentation of Freddie Mercury's doppelgänger, French musician Lucky Love, and a gospel chorus, followed by a Brett Lloyd film noir that transitioned to the main show. As Leon Dame dramatically walked through a covered warehouse under the Pont Alexandre III in a black beret, tuxedo pants, and an ultra-tight white corset with Adele's "Hometown Glory" in the background, other figures joined the magnetic performance. Inspired by the underworld of Parisian nightclubs and streets of the 1920s and '30s, Galliano explores the ritual of dressing, using the models' bodies as his canvas.

What's inside John Galliano's head, you ask? A keen sense of imagery, romanticism, rebellion, subversion, drama, and decadence, at least, that is the impression fashionistas were left with. Resembling characters straight out of a 1930s Hungarian photographer and filmmaker Brassaï's pictures, Galliano's muses strutted, tripped, and paraded with expressive movements. All of which added to the theatricality that, with the garments, created an impressive experience.

Part of the magic, the storytelling was there, from the mysterious, criminal, violent, voyeuristic, seductive, in-the-shadows film to the dimly lit nightclub decoration, filled with aged wood, abandoned drinks, fallen bottles, tainted mirrors, and a billiard table - but it did not distract the viewer from the most important part: the clothes. With a new technique called milletrage, the designer presented a lightweight fabric such as silk crêpe, where jackets, coats, and trousers have a trompe l'oeil effect. Cardboard-like beige skirts also joined Galliano's nightclub, enhancing the excellent craftsmanship of the collection. The artisanality of the looks was highlighted by the impressive modification of the figures, whether through silicone hip prostheses or extremely corseted waists, regardless of gender.

With plenty of room to innovate and impress, the label also collaborated with Christian Louboutin, reworking the signature Margiela tabis and creating slip-on pumps, some even with the iconic red Louboutin sole. In this sense, the past, present, and future came together in an intimate yet explicit journey that sometimes revealed too much. As eerie as it was revealing, models with bouffant hairstyles or hats hiding in the dark and transparent watercolor tulle illusion gowns - inspired by Dutch Fauvist painter Kees Van Dongen - revealing pubic hair created the perfect antithesis.

What is Galliano trying to hide? What is he trying to show? We can't really know - all we know is that the balance between mystery and revelation in the clothing, the models’ presence, and the obscure place kept drawing us fully in. Closed by actress Gwendoline Christie in a latex corset dress, the show's grand finale summarizes the mix of history, cinema, theater, music, Pat McGrath's blurred porcelain doll makeup, and Galliano's striking Victorian tone that created such an unconventional and provocative show. Considered a historical relic that could never exist in the present, the Maison Margiela show has restored the faith of fashionistas while revealing a truth that may be hard to digest.

After such a captivating, daring show, the question that arises in one's mind is whether John Galliano has now set the bar so high for all other brands on how to do couture. Catherine, a passionate fashionista, believes that the show has set a definite standard for fashion shows and the presentation of more elaborate storytelling.

One of the most genuine experiences fashion has had in recent years, Vanessa Friedman, fashion director of The New York Times, can't help but wonder if the outsized reaction has less to do with Mr. Galliano and more with our own anxieties about the contemporary creative state of the industry. In the age of social media, where everything is to go viral, have we become so used to ordinary and plain presentations without provocation or risk?

In a world where quiet luxury prevails and so do poorly made gimmicks, most collections have become monotonous. From displaying white tweeds in couture week to familiar looks in ready-to-wear, the luxury business has forgotten the true power behind clothes. According to The Cut fashion critic Cathy Horyn, Galliano's Paris underbelly served as a poignant reminder of the prison the fashion industry has become.

This imprisonment is more than just the simple clothing but also the failed attempts at social engagement. With many labels' current focus on generating clicks, likes, views, and shares on various platforms, the luxury industry is now too commercialized, not taking into account the essence of art and the creative process. Fashion commentator SOFIssticated states on Twitter, “The designer brought back the excitement and joy one could feel at pre-iPhone and pre-social media shows, where the viewer was immersed in the clothes and the feeling—instead of creating content.” That's what it was. It was all about the clothes. While Galliano muses glanced at the messy, dark café runway, no one could bother to care about recording this, posting that - just observing and appreciating the most out of the experience that the garments offered.

Jake, another fashion enthusiast under the username @NotModeMagazine, describes watching the show as surreal. “I think that it has raised the bar for what us fashion fans will be expecting in the future from other brands,” the user claims. He later adds that people already want less poorly made gimmicks and shock value, which have become very popular and heavily reliable for some brands. “Instead, people may be searching for a much stronger emphasis on the actual clothes being presented, the creativity of it all, and even the tasteful amount of drama being shown on the runway through the theatrics, which excites the audience but doesn’t take away what we’re all really watching for, which is great fashion,” the fashion spectator later concludes.

What is great fashion, you ask? It's the fashion that expresses, gives meaning to life, tells stories, empowers, connects, and defies the viewer, letting them truly feel the designer's concept. As Vogue runway journalist Sarah Mower wrote, “Galliano made such an all-out stand for the value of extreme creativity in a time when, all around, daring in fashion is at a low ebb.”

So how - after a long time without courage, connection, inspiration, empowerment, story, challenge, meaning, expression, and exciting fashion gracing the runway - could we not feel the impact of what we saw at Maison Margiela? Remembered in history books, gathered by museums, recalled by design students, and extinguishing the silent and viral era of the industry, Maison Margiela Artisanal Spring 2024 couture will remain in fashion history forever, like it or not, and now, every other label has the arduous job of making something as grand as it. Will they be capable of achieving such a level?