John Galliano, 63,the creative director of Maison Martin Margiela, had the tough task of closing the Paris haute couture season (which has seen stunning shows from such houses as Valentino and Schiaparelli), a challenge he met with an extremely fascinating show. It was an extraordinary portrayal of Paris’ famous historical figures that seemed to have stepped out of an Émile Zola novel.
Galliano presented Margiela’s new Spring Summer 2024 artisanal collection inside an abandoned, vaulted-ceiling venue along the Seine, transformed into a decadent bistro where a range of French archetypes took center stage, from the shapely and brazen courtesans of the past — such as Madame Pompadour or Jeanne du Barry — to the sensual and devilish Moulin Rouge dancers, as well as nocturnal gamblers and cat burglars.
French performer and drag queen “Lucky Love,” a Freddie Mercury impersonator, gave the opening wearing a man’s overcoat, then stripped it off to reveal his chest and missing left arm, singing a gospel version of his hit, “Now I Don’t Need Your Love.”
A silent black-and-white short movie by Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann, an almost-detective film featuring a jewelry store robbery, was screened immediately afterwards. It featured stilettos on broken glass, couples lacing up each other’s corsets and a thief giving the heroine a pearl necklace in a seedy bohemian brasserie in the Latin Quarter so beloved of Baudelaire.
Inside this rough and derelict inn, courtesans and innkeepers were at one point transformed — to the tune of “Hometown Glory” sung by Adele — into porcelain-faced dolls with red cheeks and mussed hair who walked slowly, lay on tables and seduced the audience. With flawless and fascinating makeup executed by Pat McGrath, they had an air of having been used and then discarded, abandoned objects of sexual desire for men who paraded confidently, swaggering or staggering as if hung over.
A model walks the runway during the Maison Margiela Haute Couture Spring Summer 2024 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on Jan. 25, 2024 in Paris, France.
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The climactic moment came when Game of Thrones actress Gwendoline Christie appeared in a milky white latex crinoline over a shimmering blue corset, with her neck and hands covered by a porcelain collar and skeleton hands. Applauding the show and Christie’s performance from the front row were Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Kris Jenner and Noah Cyrus.
Galliano’s much-talked-about haute couture show comes ahead of the release of a new documentary about the rise and fall and rise of the Gibraltar-born designer, a project in which he was an active participant. Given the emblematic title High & Low: John Galliano, it is directed by Oscar-winner Kevin Macdonald, director of Whitney (the documentary about Whitney Houston’s troubled life) and 1999’s One Day in September (winner of an Academy Award for best documentary feature).
High & Low — first presented at the Rome Film Festival in October 2023 and due out in theaters in the U.S. in March — follows Galliano’s career from his first fashion shows as a young genius student at Central Saint Martins, London’s most prestigious fashion and design school, to his ascent in the luxury industry at Givenchy and Dior. It also delves into his obsession with fitness and addiction and explores his fall from the pedestal following anti-Semitic remarks he made, which were caught on video and shared on social media.
Galliano’s resurrection came only when Renzo Rosso’s Italian OTB group — which also owns the brands Diesel, Marni, Jil Sander and Viktor & Rolf — asked him to design the jewel of the house: Maison Martin Margiela.
