Real and Physical. Virtual and Digital. Which world do you prefer? In the fashion industry the question is legitimate, after all not all we see (think about photoshopped magazine covers…) is part of the real world as we know it.
In the universe of fashion, there is another planet where what we see in reality is often altered and distorted by the digital medium – the runway. Quite a few members of the audience at runway shows nowdays end up watching the runway through the screens of their mobile phones.
This means that too often colour palettes get confused, tiny details get lost, while attention wanes as, right during a show, we rush to post on Instagram that perfect static moment or that model in movement for the benefit of our unknown followers scattered all over the world and our personal vanity.
Mesmerised by the dichotomy between what we see and what we get during a runway show, John Galliano attempted to create clothes for Maison Margiela Artisanal S/S 18 collection that sparked a dialogue between reality and the Instagrammable world.
The collection, showcased on Wednesday morning during Paris Haute Couture Week at the Maison's headquarters on Paris' rue Saint-Maur, opened with a series of dresses and garments that seemed to be made with a plain black fabric, but produced dazzling holographic effects that could be seen only on-screen when they were exposed to the lights of a mobile phone flash.
It was as if the flash released the ghosts trapped in the designs that were often layered stratifications of various deconstructed garments in different colours, fabrics and patterns, including some Comme Des Garçons' evoking polka dot prints.
The secret behind these designs was a reflective material and the effect was certainly enchanting, but definitely not new.
Galliano may have been the first designer to use the material for high fashion designs, but Kunihiko Morinaga at Anrealage has been experimenting with lights and shadows and reflective materials in ready-to-wear for quite a few years and has actually managed to produce wearable collections and even workwear made with fabrics that give his designs a transformative power.
The process to make the garments was probably more interesting than the actual clothes in Margiela's collection: the team took several pictures while making the pieces and altered them according to the effects they saw on the images taken.
The rest of the collection was a wise remix of Margiela and Galliano's tropes: piles of coloured feathers and a slipdress dress were sandwiched between see-through polyurethane layers; long elegant chinoiserie dresses were hidden under plastic to create a dichotomy between the artisanal power of materials such as silk and the brutal rigidity of industrial plastic; an anorak blended into a pleated bronze evening skirt and a deconstructed windbreaker was matched with a caged skirt.
Clear plastic was also employed for the corsets matched with elegant dresses or with a sporty frothy design in a super bright shade of acid yellow.
Yellow appeared quite a lot in the collection and it was often employed for plastic outerwear or as an extra techno layer between a coat and a slipdress.
These designs may have actually been references to (one of the inspirations behind the collection?) Joi's plastic yellow raincoat in Denis Villeneuve's "Blade Runner 2049".
The iridescent PVC Chinese parasols accessorising designs such as an oversized padded jacket and an evening dress (both covered in see-through plastic) were probably references to the rain scenes in Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner".
The classic Margiela Artisanal touch was instead clear in a skirt made of Perspex color swatches and in the buttons decorating some of the dresses.
The trompe l'oeil trench was another classic Margiela trick, while the final gown with an iridescent pleated panel incorporated into the bodice (expect to see it on a red carpet or in a super cool music video…) evoked the ghost of Loïe Fuller.
As a whole the collection had a futuristic mood: the models on Margiela's runway may have been replicants or aliens just landed on planet Earth from a galaxy far away, they represented metaphors for speed, technology and innovation.
At the same time the collection was also reminiscent of other fashion labels that have been pushing the boundaries of fabric and material research (think Anrealage or Iris Van Herpen) while the styling called to mind Junya Watanabe's shows.
That said, it was good seeing Galliano reshifting the attention on the power of fabrics and prompting people to wonder if in a few years' time we will be able to project images on clothes or to morph the patterns in a textile in a fraction of a second (themes that, as you may remember, we already explored in previous posts on this site…). We may not know what to expect from fabric researches, but these first visually mesmerising steps could be certainly considered as the perks of an uncertain but fascinating techno future.
