Maison Margiela is back once more with its artisanal collection. This time round, with John Galliano as its new creative director. No doubt, there were jitters and suspicion on whether the ex-Dior designer could deliver but he did. And he did it exceptionally well.

Martin Margiela‘s ability to infuse new life into the overlooked, the discarded, the scorned has always intrigued and impressed me. It was even more distinctive in his label’s Artisanal offshoot, where vintage/recycled/upcycled bits and pieces went into the collection and produced fascinating results.

Galliano‘s take on the brand is spot on I would say, without losing the essence of the artisnal mission – to recycle, reuse and REINVENT. And I say reinvent with full on uppercases, because I think he did reinvent many of the objects such as seashells, toy cars, toy soldiers and hair pins in a whole new light. Toycars as trimmings on a suede jacket, toy soldiers that created interesting details and shapes, hair pin fringes that move and twinkle as the model walks on.

There was also these seashells assembled into facial features and decorative plates which I thought was absolutely brilliant and unique. John Galliano‘s ugly pretty aesthetics that he has shown in his past works has successfully translate into the Maison Margiela Artisanal collection. The grotesque element in this show comes with a sweet after taste and the show couldn’t be more well conceived.

May the next Artisanal collection be awesome as this. 

Image Source: style.com