John Galliano - Designer, Creative Director of Maison Margiela

[blueorchid]

some can.. some cant 😁 we need a list of unproblematic fashion geniuses.

Being a generally decent person doesn’t make one unproblematic, lol. They’re different!! Being a genius doesn’t make acting like an overgrown toddler ok.

 

[tourbillions]

no one said its ok... acknowledging that many designers are problematic is not saying its ok. At the same time we need to see what the crop looks like if we kicked out all the problematic ones and only have the non-problematic ones.

i get it its 2024 and being problematic isnt a thing anymore. Everyone needs to be insta perfect and every wrong thing said will be overblown by insta people. But is it part of the reason why problematic good designers are immediately kicked out in favor of mediocre but non-problematic ones? will these non-problematic designers move fashion forward to where it was back when it was dark and problematic?

These are all ofcourse creatively speaking, sales/making sales are a totally different conversation. Maybe the quality of fashion in the past was so good because only the tough ones sticked and everyone else who cannot handle the heat and didnt have fashion in their blood had to go look for jobs somewhere else.

 

[CholoChic]

If you are lucky enough to have a rara avis in your company,
do not treat it like a common bird.
The sensitivity of a genius like Galliano comes from a soul much more delicate than that of a common worker who deals with stress, which is why there is no one like him today. Without Galliano París will lose a lot of relevance in terms of fashion. Why do you enjoy his work so much and are not able to accept that it comes from a spirit that is too valuable and therefore fragile.

 

[blueorchid]

Why do you enjoy his work so much and are not able to accept that it comes from a spirit that is too valuable and therefore fragile

Because imo that’s bullsh*t, so what… his fragile genius needs come before everything else? Everyone has to burp him and wipe his a*s because he’s a genius? 🙄 This attitude is absurd, IMO. Just because other people aren’t geniuses, doesn’t mean they deserve to be treated like garbage. Maybe he deserves to go back to Dior and crash and burn again, now that I think about it.

 

[tourbillions]

again step back and think what the fashion world will look like without people like galliano, mcqueen, lagerfeld, d&g, coco chanel, ralph lauren, christian dior, hugo boss, louis vuitton, balenciaga. All have had their fair share of being problematic...

 

[blueorchid]

There’s a difference IMO between being simply being “problematic” and an as*hole… like, they’re not the same thing? Specific behaviours or maybe insensitive designs can be “problematic”, but constantly needing to be coddled because of “genius” another.

 

[tourbillions]

they go hand in hand... biggest nazi supporters are now giant fashion brands. im not sure how you can say its not the same thing. You my friend have a lot of brands to cross off your shopping list.

 

[blueorchid]

Hmm… okay, I feel like we’re not discussing the same thing. Someone being an actual Nazi is beyond “problematic.” I’m not talking about where I do or don’t shop.

 

[avonlea002]

What? Chanel has been dead for over 50 years and her brand is owned by people who are jewish so I am not sure why you are talking about.

 

[tourbillions]

What? Chanel has been dead for over 50 years and her brand is owned by people who are jewish so I am not sure why you are talking about.

the point is that fashion isnt all that clean and if people back then dismissed these now big names/brands who were problematic then fashion will be totally different.

Connecting that to today's very "sensitive" climate.. Could this be part of the reason were not really finding new geniuses?

 

[avonlea002]

Because imo that’s bullsh*t, so what… his fragile genius needs come before everything else? Everyone has to burp him and wipe his a*s because he’s a genius? 🙄 This attitude is absurd, IMO. Just because other people aren’t geniuses, doesn’t mean they deserve to be treated like garbage. Maybe he deserves to go back to Dior and crash and burn again, now that I think about it.

Also, why is it only in artistic fields that such behavior is accepted, but when it's in finance, for example, people will immediately call it what it is without unnecessary excuses?

 

[tourbillions]

Also, why is it only in artistic fields that such behavior is accepted, but when it's in finance, for example, people will immediately call it what it is without unnecessary excuses?

Finance works in a totally different part of the brain. Maybe some people have maths in their soul, i wouldnt know it since i myself am not a finance person. What i can say is either you are drunk, high, depressed, happy in the simplest form 1+1 = 2 in finance. Your current mood will not alter the numbers unless you do it in purpose.

 

[blueorchid]

Also, why is it only in artistic fields that such behavior is accepted, but when it's in finance, for example, people will immediately call it what it is without unnecessary excuses?

Couldn't someone consider people like Bernie Madoff or Elizabeth Holmes geniuses for their scams? Maybe they shouldn't be punished, after all, but be free because they're geniuses, too! What about serial killers? Especially the ones who haven't been caught! Criminal GENIUSES!!!! 🤡

Anyway, this has devolved completely from my original point.

 

[tourbillions]

so now we are equating someones drunk behaviors into crimes...

Anyway im definitely not sure what you were vouching for. But it is always an interesting conversation what the arts field look like if everyone was nice and kind and considerate.

its like asking what taylor swifts discography will sound like without all her heartbreaks 😂

 

[blueorchid]

so now we are equating someones behaviors into crimes...

No. I'm taking about if GENIUS (in different categories) should absolve people of the consequences of their behaviours. Isn't a genius regardless of what type of genius they are? As you said, geniuses can't be held responsible for anything.

 

[Lola701]

Without Galliano París will lose a lot of relevance in terms of fashion. Why do you enjoy his work so much and are not able to accept that it comes from a spirit that is too valuable and therefore fragile.

He didn’t designed for 4 years and the fashion conversation kept going.
Paris was still relevant….Just saying.
And it’s not like when he returned, he influenced the fashion landscape.

He may be a legend, we have to be realistic.

 

[tricotineacetat]

There’s very little Dior could do when Galliano’s incident was filmed for everyone to see at the time - He lost his face, imagine any other person acting as the face of a company, political party or in any other public position - We would expect a resignment. Especially as Natalie Portman openly condemned it to the press, refusing to be further associated with Galliano as part of her endorsement deal.

I think in hindsight, having this reset helped Galliano to fight his demons and reinvent himself - Who knows if he had ended up like McQueen, had he stayed in the place he was at!

 

[Lola701]

some can.. some cant 😁 we need a list of unproblematic fashion geniuses.

I have a issue with the word unproblematic because it implies a very linear and definitive POV on what is after all human nature…

And when I say human nature, I talk about the complexity of a human being. There are paradoxes and contradictions in every human being and so, I don’t think everything can be judged the same.

What I think it’s difficult is that fashion, much like every artistic endeavor has that weird thing where we love those people’s work but at the same time, their personal lives and experiences informs their work.
A banker, or people in those non-artistic world can totally isolate their work from their personal lives. They can have the most « problematic » opinions but they won’t necessarily have an impact on their tasks.

Talking about « problematic » geniuses, It’s very difficult for me to apprehend Chanel. She was an horrible woman, it’s highly documented and was shared by so many people on French Media that I never had the occasion to have a warm idea regarding her personality.

That being said, her rags to riches story is admiring, my favorite designer (who had his fair share of dumb statements) worked at that house. The twist comes even more regarding her Nazis associations.
Because it was all about taking down the Weirthemers, family that still owns the brand today. I think it must be a mind game for them to think about the history of their family and the relationship with the name Chanel.

Then, having worked in fashion, my POV of what a problematic designer is may be different from the person outside. I’m very sensible on the way people of power treats other people. So a designer that was never on a public scandal, can be very problematic to me.

The story of John is also a very difficult one. Because that side of his personality (what he said that was captured in the video) wasn’t known by many. At the time I knew people who worked at Dior in his studio and while his substance abuses were hard to hide, I’ve never heard anything about how he treated assistants, interns or people of the team…Despite his huge ego.
So there, it’s quite easy to understand that he is complex, he can be many things at the same time.

But I can’t lie and say that part of my liking of designers or their work isn’t influenced by my appreciation of their personalities, what I know, have heard or witnessed about them. And I love strong personalities.

 

[VogueDisciple93]

I do not mean to offend anyone, but I really believe nostalgia is hampering how some here are thinking about John. Outside of his last couture collection, he is not leading the fashion conversation or affecting the industry in any way. He is not irrelevant but he’s has not been as consequential as some are canonizing him. Margiela has grown during his time but that was because of the Merchandising and commercializing changes made by OTB - moving/opening stores in more central areas (NY’s Soho, Miami’s Design District), having forever basics like plain knits and suiting, of course the shoes and abundance of styles, adding logos. Margiela stepped more into the main stream under OTB and that was inevitably going to raise sales. Their hits/identifiers now are the same as before he started.
This is why Margiela worked for him as he was able to design how he wanted and if they were lucky it got some attention and if not they still were stocking their shops with tried and trues. There are few other brands where this would work, none at the large scale some here are hoping he helms next.

 

[CholoChic]

I really understand the way Galliano immersed himself in alcohol and the stupid things he did, I understand it perfectly, I also know that there are drunks who do not remember anything of what they said and the video shows a mutual fight with provocations from the other party with the intention of filming him, it was horrible and it was not correct of course and this being a crime in France it was the worst thing for him.

But I never believed his anti-Semitic insults, it didn't even seem fair to me, nor did it seem racist to me, because his work was full of diversity, even his first men's show had a sequence of Jews.

But it's ironic that this got him out of alcoholism in time, which I understand is not easy to get out of.

However, the most hypocritical industry of all condemned him and, with the superficiality that it is, stoned him.

And few understood or tried to understand and why would a vanity industry full of superficial clients who would hardly understand the symbol of a detail or understand the brushstroke of an artist.

Because finally Galliano is an artist, it is the reason that attracted me to him: his art. And when he left the industry I was looking for the trace of art in fashion and I could barely find anything that I could call art.

And this time it is when he returns to his stolen throne that those who expelled him become involved in a scandal of exploitation poor people and defrauding customers with cheap, not to say ugly, bags. Where are the scandalized Natalies Portmans swearing they will never wear Dior again?