Mood board: Instagram feeds, live runway streams, show reports filmed by reviewers on phones... fashion weeks’ digital coverage can be dizzying. When John Galliano presented his prismatic S/S 2019 Artisanal collection in January, the designer was preoccupied by the barrage of information that bombards Gen Z, and their difficultly to decipher what’s true in today's virtual vortex. His A/W 2019 was an antidote to this ‘digital decadence’. A reduced and restrained presentation of garments that drew on the brand’s typically deconstructed aesthetic and the spliced and reassembled ‘Decortique’ approach which Galliano introduced when he joined the house.
The collection featured pieces reduced to their truest form using humble menswear fabrics like herringbone, flannel and cavalry twills – like men’s trousers twisted into a bustier dress, a faux leather trench sported as long shorts, tailored trousers flattened into bulbous skirts. There were still elements of excess here – after all we’ll never truly dial down all that digital colour. The men’s looks were the most notably flamboyant (genderless design was a preoccupation of Galliano’s S/S 2019 ready-to-wear offering). Skinny jacquard trousers had colourful flamingo patterns, and wadded coats nodded to the brand’s squidgy Glam Slam bag.
Best in show: Paris has a penchant for the power shoulder, see Saint Laurent and Lemaire for more maxi shapes. At Maison Margiela, boxy jackets and double-breasted coats had oversized curving shoulders and sleeves that resembled thick tubes.
Sound bite: For the show, Galliano released the sixth iteration of his ‘The Memory of…’ podcast which allows the Gen Z audience he considers each season to hear more about the inspiration behind his collections. ‘I wanted to produce that feeling of being unsatiated, if only to inspire myself and the team to a new direction,’ he explains. ‘The artifice, the excess, the toning down, degenerated to what I’m feeling today… taking things right down to the purest, to the necessary.
Maison Margiela A/W 2019.
Maison Margiela A/W 2019.
Maison Margiela A/W 2019.
Maison Margiela A/W 2019.
-
Jessica Anne Woodley’s ‘joyfully imperfect’ furniture seeks your inner childThe designer is launching GliFfY, a furniture studio offering playful forms that reflect on her personal growth
-
A house on Ireland’s wild Atlantic coast blends into the landscapeOn the Atlantic coast, Cruit Island’s craggy topography and wind-swept vegetation inspired the form and composition of this beachside family retreat in Donegal
-
Five of the best travel cameras, pocketable friends for the peripateticSelected by the Wallpaper* technology and travel team, the following cameras are tiny but mighty devices, dexterous at capturing memories
-
What the Wallpaper* editors are looking forward to at Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2026As Men’s Fashion Week S/S 2026 begins in Florence today, the Wallpaper* style team select the moments they will be looking out for – from Jonathan Anderson’s anticipated Dior debut to outings from Wales Bonner, Kiko Kostadinov and Prada
-
Donna Trope celebrates the power of the Polaroid in Paris‘Polaroids used to be my rejects, and now they are my holy grail,’ says the beauty photographer, as she shows rarely seen images in a Paris exhibition
-
Horace’s new men’s scent is the linen shirt of the fragrance closetVetiver Primavera, the new fragrance from men’s grooming brand Horace, is casual but elegant, says Wallpaper’s Mary Cleary – a citrussy scent for summer
-
‘Don’t forget to get the bread!’ Serge Lutens writes an ode to a singular perfumePublished exclusively by Wallpaper*, Serge Lutens writes an ode to Jeux de Peau, a singular perfume of his creation inspired by a childhood memory of baking bread
-
French skincare brand PERS doesn’t believe in overcomplicated routinesFrench skincare brand PERS – an acronym for ‘protect, enhance, repair, and stimulate’ – has recently arrived in the UK. The mastermind behind it, Dr Antoni Calmon, tells Wallpaper* about his protocol
-
What did Christian Dior’s favourite ‘invisible’ flower smell like?Dior’s Francis Kurkdijan recreates the scent of a rare lily of the valley species in Le Muguet, the first olfactory chapter of new perfume collection Les Récoltes Majeures
-
Inside Camperlab’s Harry Nuriev-designed Paris store, a dramatic exercise in contrastThe Crosby Studios founder tells Wallpaper* the story behind his new store design for Mallorcan shoe brand Camperlab, which centres on an interplay between ‘crushed concrete’ and gleaming industrial design
-
This perfume bottle archive was nearly lost. Now, it offers a rare whiff of fragrance historyFifty blueprints from a forgotten French crystal manufacturer will be for sale as part of the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair
