Needless to say, the highlight of this year’s Vogue festival was the appearance of John Galliano, the designer who made such a rippling comeback by taking the reigns at Maison Margiela. He did not come empty handed. Every audience member that entered the tension-filled room gasped as four creations from his recent couture collection stood hauntingly on stage, as if waiting for Galliano to reveal the secrets of how they were made. The designer did not disappoint, as he moved around the stage to show how a man’s coat became the back of a wedding dress, how he reused flea-market finds and shells to propose a new concept of embellishment and how the toiles very much had the Margiela stamp in that they were painted white and included post-its and write-ups. What a privilege it was to listen to a visionary who spoke so humbly about the joy of creating. Welcome back, John.
Nada Abdul Ghaffar