Maison Margiela

Margiela’s Haute Couture collections are always expected to be spectacular, especially when creative director John Galliano is the mastermind behind it. With a penchant for storytelling and cinematography, the house’s previous two collections were showcased through films and Galliano opts for the same format to present Maison Margiela Haute Couture Autumn/Winter ‘2022 collection. Entitled Cinema Inferno the film was adapted by UK Theater Company Imitating the Dog and presented in front of a live audience, including Kim Kardashian at the Théâtre National de Chaillot in Paris.

If the theme of the previous cinematic presentation was folk horror genre, for this collection it’s The Wild Wild West action thriller which centers around two lovers, Count and Hen, on a whirlwind adventure across the Arizona desert as they flee from ghostly bandits after committing a murder.

The characters are donned in Galliano’s dreamy couture designs that feature standout colours, shapes and silhouettes. There are cowboys that parade with prop rifles wearing gilded long coats, rhinestone western-style boots and cowboy hats. Female characters wear diaphanous pastel organza dresses with voluminous underskirts styled with matching gloves and latex skullcaps.

There are a series of costumes that feature pleated skirts, miniskirts and conical hats, alongside a horde of models wearing satin dresses and hospital scrubs designed in neoprene. The presentation closes with a chain mail dress made out of mirror pieces, paired with an oversized jet-black cowboy hat.

All in all, the collection exemplifies the house’s signature codes like the translucent face coverings and irreverent tailoring punctuated further with Galliano’s signature aesthetics, including the ‘20s-inspired make-up from his earlier collections. Just when we thought that last year’s presentation was the most Galliano yet, he has just outdone himself with this one.