It’s the night in Paris… it is the first full moon of the year… a spell on the fashion week. John Galliano hit hard with his new collection for Maison Margiela Atelier 2024.
A black and white short movie by Baz Luhrmann sets the tone on the foggy quay of the Seine… traveling back in time… in the decadent Paris 1900… of thugs and prostitutes.
“Would you like to take a walk with me… offline?”… like a ghostly invitation whispered through the night and streets of Paris. No words and no crowds but the exacerbated noises of those who live when the city is asleep. Werewolves, pigeons, a violin, the motor of a car, the laces of a corset, the heels on the paving stones… It’s the echo of the emptiness… the bit of the night and danger.
When the lights turn off… the sparks from a cracked match on the sole of a shoe… setting fire… ready to take over the streets and burglarize the night. A stolen pearl necklace… while the silence is broken like the glass by an alarm. The night becomes criminal… guilty… and the foot stands on the scene like a sharp weapon… blood on the hands. The loot is made for a woman… a sexy silhouette behind the windows of a Brasserie… accomplice… attracted by jewels. She didn’t know she was the next victim… vampirised among pearls around her neck.
This short-movie is a subtle reference to the parisian Apaches of 1900… a criminal and cultural phenomenon. It’s a Belle Epoque, a wild Apache Dance and a fashion statement.
It makes even more sense as the Apaches were stylish criminals who inspired movies, dance and even artists like Egon Schiele. Some scenes of the short movie are even referring to it as much as the choreographic moves of the show that follows…
As the short movie ends on the run on the quay under the bridge Alexandre III… so starts the runway orchestrated by Galliano. Pat Bogulaswski, the movement director, sublimated the garments by using the body as an expression and canvas… from an underworld of thugs and prostitutes in a seductive and dangerous relation to the viewer. A kiss on the lips becomes as much possible as a dagger in the heart… It’s a cruel, ambiguous and paradoxical feeling… made of tension and temptation… fashion!
The make-up by Pat McGrath transforms the models into dolls with “glass skin”. Red lips, thin eyebrows, colorful eyes… they are retro-futurists… strong and fragile like porcelain or ragdolls with watercolor bodies like Schiele’s drawing (around 1915)…
The figures are at the edge of humanity and as much object as subject… pure uncanny !
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