Maison Margiela Fall couture 2018 – Paris Fashion Week

(Images from Vogue.com and wwd.com the public domain. All rights. Used in promotion of the designer.)

John Galliano's mastery via Maison Margiela maintains the refined themes, reworked or updated into what was once known as haute couture, of breaking down fashion representations of traditionalism and warping them into a contemporary take on couture aesthetics.   A master is perpetually cultivating, shaping and creating ideas that always come from the original mold.  Never breaking away from the stream of creativity, but rather updating and re-configuring from its first inception.   Such is Galliano's Fall 2018 collection for Masion Margiela, as discussed in my previous reviews (please refer to this link), continues his layering of clothing as imprints of other styles, very cleverly orchestrated.  As described by the designer himself, as a way of representing the rushed, time-poor aesthetics.  Stylized looks portrayed in an untidy array.  What works, works without much thought. 

An effortless throwing on of garments, although carefully managed by the watchful eye of Galliano.  There is more of an artistic commentary to his collection rather than functionality, although both could interact as a fashion style.  Layering and folding of clothes, pinching and uplifting of fabrics, unusual stich work.  With styles mirroring looks of yesterday, an impression or mirrored retrospection, overlapped and compressed into newer visual perspectives which holds a relevant appeal.    The Fall 2018 collection, as far as the messy ensemble styles, portrays more of a sheltered protective look.  Clothing is the sanctuary away from an indifference of the natural environment, but also at times a cold and unforgiving society.  Repetitive in its meritocracy.  You need to feel safe, protected and comfortable.  Aesthetics to not only please but to survive.  Fashion can deliver these attributes as  a detachment via using the aspects of the material world.  Clothing.  An escape from the harshness of reality and to be confined within what you wear and feel.  Why not?  As Galliano said himself about his recent collection.   "Creating a world within a world that is very troubled at the moment."   A futuristic tweaking, reinvigorating dystopic styles which have been some of the runway trends of 2017 and 2018.  Stripping down and compressing a couture array for Maison Margiela, in which the company seems to have allowed Galliano to maintain his artistic expression of the risqué.  

Models were sealed up in street styled looks,  but within the context of maturity and survival.  A futuristic take on tribal appearances as economic and social systems break down.  Ad hoc and reconfigured.  But not grimy or broken, as such as early Avant-garde styles of the last ten years.   A pride in the mess and imperfect, despite in being a couture show.  Why bother trying to fix a global world when the individual should be more concerned about in living within the moment.     To survive and look good whilst not caring.   Is liberating.