A Frenzied John Galliano Reimagines Haute Couture Decadence For Maison Margiela Artisanal Spring 2019

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For Maison Margiela Artisanal’s haute couture Spring/Summer 2019 collection, John Galliano used a podcast to address decadence in art, film, literature — and life. Nowhere is that perceived decadence better expressed than in the insatiable thirst for technology, especially among Gen Z types.

‘’The overstimulation of computer-generated imagery alters reality and degenerates the truth. Chaotic and unsettling, it is a confusion of the senses rooted in an over-satiation that inevitably overspills’’, said the show notes. With that, Galliano presented his haute couture collection against an eye-popping graffitied backdrop that totally dominates the visual presentation of his collection.

The gender fluid bodies “replicated that visually chaotic mural as a print using any number of inventive treatments, from traditional hand-embroideries and feather fronds to state-of-the-art reflective fabrics,", writes Vogue’s Hamish Bowles., describing them as “often combined to create a shimmering effect as though you had looked too hard at the sun and then closed your eyes. With mirror underfoot to fracture and multiply the looks, the effect was even more discombobulating and powerful. “

Galliano confessed that he is “feeling so much energy in the world” and the result is a collection that reinvents the vision of haute couture in 2019.

Eye | Happy Chinese New Year | Monsanto's Travails | Gods and Kings: McQueen & Galliano

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ArtTracker

Happy Chinese New Year

Chinese Warrior Lanterns By Artist Xia Nan Comes Celebrate Chinese New Year in Sydney AOC Global View

Sydney, Australia welcomes Chinese New Year with 90 colorful lantern sculptures created by Chinese artist Xia Nanfor the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.The sculptures are made of fabric and wire and can be viewed from February 13-February 22 in Dawes Point.

Is it the Year of the Sheep, Goat or Ram? CNN

Unable to make up its mind, Hong Kong’s store windows are filled with “cartoon-like sheep, cheeky goats and curly-horned rams in a spending bonanza some say is bigger than Christmas in the West. “

Chinese couples shun Year of the Sheep Babies CNN

Duan Chengrong, a professor of demography at Renmin University, analyzed population data from 1954 to 2002 and says that the avoidance of childbirth in sheep years is a “myth” that does not stand up to analysis.

He calls it a “social phenomenon” that’s more common in northern China than the south. A native of Chongqing, he said he’d never heard of it when he was a child.

Scholars say that the year of the Sheep has an honorable history with positive qualities of compassion and filial piety, qualities out of favor in modern life. Chinese government officials are so concerned about the possibility of couples taking the mythology seriously, that they’ve promoted people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Twain, Jay Chou and Zhang Ziyi as sheep.

Shedding Light On Foods We Eat

Photographer Radu Zaciu Snaps Illuminated Fruits & Veggies Global View

Monsanto’s Complex World

A woman participates in a protest against transgenic corn last year in Mexico City, Mexico. Monsanto announced that its first-quarter earnings dropped on lower sales to South American farmers. Photograph: Xinhua/Landov/Barcroft Media

Monsanto earnings fall 34% after a year of global protests The Guardian

Monsanto reported in January that its earnings fell 34% in its first fiscal quarter. The reasons were several. American farmers cut back on corn production, reducing demand for biotech-enhanced seeds. Record crops in the US sent food prices plummeting, resulting in South American and elsewhere farmers reducing their own corn plantings. Cotton production in Australia was also affected.

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Suzy Menkes Raves Over John Galliano Debut At Martin Margiela

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John Galliano’s friends — including bestie Kate Moss — were out in full force this afternoon in London for his debut as Creative Director at Martin Margiela. Writing for Vogue UK, Suzy Menkes heaped praise on the designer — gushing really — about the debut collection.

The crowd was in a mood to forgive and forget Galliano’s fall from grace, writes Menkes. The timing was not perfect, as we noted earlier today, based on current events in Paris.

In the mix of oddities and remnants — presumably as an acknowledgement of Margiel’s spartan concept of remake-and-mend-

“there was a sweet elegance, writes Menkes. “Another plain red velvet dress, cut away in curving, flesh-revealing spaces at the back, had the fashion audience sighing and dying, with Natalie Massenet of Net-a-porter the first to sing its merits and show her desire.”

Kate Moss would wear these tiny shorts to Glastonbury, writes Menkes, noting the expected sexual message that pulsed throughout the show. Totally abondoning the Margiela aesthetic, Galliano swung into his Dior days, mixing sheer red transparency over an animal print bodysuit.

Vanessa Friedman, Fashion Director and Chief Fashion Critic for the NY Times has now weighed in with a positive but more circumspect review. Her critique better articulates AOC’s response to the images.

 

Mr. Galliano is always good — but, more important, relevant?

Beyond the excitement of today, would, or should, anyone care?

Maybe.

This wasn’t a slam-dunk debut of a new vision — not one of those moments that changes the direction of clothes, redefining a silhouette or a mood and making women sit up in recognition and think, “That’s how I want to look now.” It wasn’t a moment that wiped the slate clean with its own power.

It was, rather, more of a slow stretch; a warm-up. You can understand it. Mr. Galliano has been on the bench awhile.

 

 

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Eye | John Galliano Returns At Teatime London | Hollywood Stands For Charlie | Adidas Originals Ad Campaign

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Helen Mirren shows support for free speech, holding Je Suis Charlie sign at January 11 Golden Globe awards in Hollywood.Adidas Originals | #OriginalSuperstar

Some of the best, memorable ad campaigns are launched by athletic brands, and the new Adidas Originals campaign hits a real high note inspite of a strong bass line. In the age of selfiedom — now promoted in more not memorable Spring 2015 campaigns than we can count — Adidas has a values-driven message: stop being obsessed with your own fame.

You can live through the lives of celebrities, says Adidas, even if you are Rebecca Harrington writing about her adventures in celebrity dieting in I’ll Have What She’s Having, out this week from Vintage. New York Magazine features Harrington’s ‘I Tried Taylor Swift’s Diet and It Was A Joy’.

John Galliano Returns to Runway Today

John Galliano with model Cara Delevingne at a London party December 2014.Former Dior Creative Director and Designer John Galliano will return to the fashion world today, as he debut’s French Label Maison Martin Margiela Artisanal collection at London’s menswear show. WWD reports that Lanvin’s Alber Elbaz, Burberry’s Christopher Bailey and milliner Stephen Jones are expected to attend the event.

Jones says that the event will occur at 4:30 pn London time at a “warehouse space in Westminster”.” It’s ‘Teatime’,” explained Margiela spokeswoman Jade Guishard, “which is very English.”

Perfect Timing?

If Guishard is right and timing is everything in life, Galliano might wish for a different day to showcase his work. The impetuous, alcoholic design talent, who has received major support from Vogue’s Anna Wintour and supermodel Kate Moss in his recovery, faced a deadly public relations backlash over his antisemetic, drunken February 2011 rant at the La Perle cafe in the Marais.

Unfortunately, the Marais is also the location of Paris’ terrorist attack at a kosher supermarket, with four dead bodies now headed for Israel, rather than burial in France. Anti-Semetic attacks and incidents in France more than doubled during 2014, says the French Ministry of Interior. About 7,000 French Jews moved to Israel from France in 2014 up from 3,300 in 2013. It’s believed that 15,000 French Jews will migrate to Israel this year, writes Middle East Eye.

Note that anti-Muslim attacks have also increased in France and throughout Europe over the same period.

Whether current events will impact the viability of Galliano’s return to fashion design will be decided after the first collections are shown. Galliano may no longer be relevant as a designer, writes The Guardian. Certainly his theatrical, over-the-top designs have no place at Martin Margiela. After phase one’s focus on the clothes, European retailers will decide whether or not to embrace again fashion’s bad boy now enjoying a revitalized, sober life based on values that resonate — or so he says.

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LVMH Arnault Vision Cools On 'L'Enfant Terrible' Designers

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LVMH Arnault Vision Cools On ‘L’Enfant Terrible’ Designers AOC Style

Arnault has been dazzled by Céline, a brand enjoying triple-digit growth, even in critical emerging markets like China where glitz continues to tantalize the nouveau riche. In 2010, Asia—excluding Japan— was the largest market for all LVMH products.

The chairman admits that his daughter Delphine is working at Dior, “but she wears Céline.”

Writing in early March Wanted at Dior | Super Creative, Low Drama, Confident Not Abrasive Designer Who Loves Women, I said:

Philo doesn’t have the uber-intellectual pedigree of Riccardo Tisci. She’s more like Marc Jacobs with a strong vision of what women want to wear every day and an excellent eye for handbags and accessories. 

It goes without saying that I would LOVE to see a woman designer at Dior, but I think Phoebe is a long-shot.

What Bernard Arnault doesn’t want right now is an arrogant “his highness” designer or a tortured soul. The world is in a fragile place, and there’s no room for drama queen creatives or tortured personalities.

Can one be creative and not full of drama?  Many people on this list prove that you can be.

Opening Ceremony @Kenzo

Earlier this week LVMH put a new design team in place at Kenzo. Designer Kenzo Takada retired in 1999, and the brand has continued under the design direction of Sardinian designer Antonio Marras since 2004.