John Galliano sketches out his vision for Maison Margiela in Paris

John Galliano’s return to the Paris catwalk, as creative director for Maison Margiela, will be remembered as much for what didn’t happen as for what did. After the show, which took place in a small enclosed room at the Grand Palais on Friday evening, the assembled fashion crowd tried two rounds of clapping to try to entice the designer to take a post-show bow. It was all to no avail. In the tradition of Margiela, a brand founded by a designer keen to retain his anonymity, Galliano was nowhere to be seen.
His mark, however, was on the collection he sent out – or half of it anyway. As concise as the seating plan – so tight it saw French fashion royalty Carine Roitfeld perching at the back – Galliano used 30 looks to sketch out his vision for his new house, while being sure to pay homage to what had come before.
It was always going to be interesting to see how the marriage of Galliano’s flamboyant romanticism and the conceptual abstraction of the Margiela brand developed from the couture collection shown in London in January. The debut ready-to-wear suggested they are currently sleeping in separate beds.
The first look out was fairly quiet – a long camel coat with bright orange leather gloves and clumpy Mary Janes. This was followed by a succession of clothes that, broadly speaking, fell in either the Galliano camp or the Margiela one. A chiffon slip dress with black vest felt like a throwback to the brand’s 1990s minimalist roots. But models in neon makeup creeping along the catwalk carrying a paper bag or wearing a pinstripe bustier had all the hallmarks of Galliano. Other pieces tied to his work included a lace gothy frock and short taffeta skirts with tartan trim. Margiela-like experimentalism came from shoes covered in horsehair and a model in a body stocking with the black lines of an artist’s model drawn around her joints.

It was always going to be interesting to see how the marriage of Galliano’s flamboyant romanticism and the conceptual abstraction of the Margiela brand. Photograph: Rex Features

The two sides have craftsmanship in common. From a satin skirt of panels pinned together (Galliano) to a trench coat with patterns razored into it (Margiela), these clothes were beautifully made. They were also – surprising perhaps from both sides – strikingly wearable, even when modelled by girls in neon clown makeup. A trouser suit with schoolboy proportions was chic, as was a claret-coloured sequinned shirt dress and velvet jackets. Show notes referenced the importance of “studied craft” to the collection, while “the élan of the individual rises to the fore”. This may become common ground.
It wouldn’t have escaped the attention of those watching the show that Galliano’s return was on the same day as the show for Christian Dior, where the designer spent 15 years as creative director. Under Raf Simons, the creative director since 2012, Dior is a very different beast. For this collection, he took nature as its theme but had a typically conceptual approach. “I wanted the collection to deal with nature and femininity in a different way,” read the show notes. “Away from the garden and the flower, to something more liberated, dark and sexual.”
Patent finishes – more associated with fetish clubs than storied French fashion houses – were a recurring theme. Allusions to nature came from fox fur coats almost to the floor and curved patterns, like the waves in desert sand, on knitwear. Needless to say, Galliano-era theatrics were in short supply.
Galliano was announced as creative director of Maison Margiela in October last year. This was preceded by three years out of the limelight after he was sacked from Dior in February 2011 following antisemitic remarks made in a cafe.

At the announcement of Galliano’s appointment, Renzo Rosso called the designer ‘one of the greatest, undisputed talents of all time’. Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images

With high-profile supporters in the fashion industry, from Anna Wintour to Kate Moss, a return was somewhat inevitable. Renzo Rosso, the president of Only the Brave – the company that own Margiela – is a longtime fan. At the announcement of Galliano’s appointment, Rosso called the designer “one of the greatest, undisputed talents of all time”. He now has a new platform to prove that to be true.