London’s men’s fashion week began on Friday, but unusually for the four-day event, one of the key talking points was an off-schedule womenswear show: John Galliano’s first collection for Maison Martin Margiela, which was being shown on Monday.
There is no official word from Margiela on why the designer is staging such a high profile presentation during the London Collections: Men (LC:M) timetable, nor why it is showing couture womenswear in London – traditionally the preserve of couture week, which takes place later in January, in Paris.
In any case, the show will be the biggest step yet in Galliano’s career rehabilitation, coming almost four years after he was sacked from Dior after being recorded delivering an anti-Semitic rant in a Paris bar. Although the 54-year-old designer made brief returns to the limelight after his fall from grace, designing a one-off collection for Oscar de la Renta last year, his appointment at Margiela marks a more permanent comeback.
Though some have welcomed Galliano’s return – Anna Wintour gave an emotional speech in her honor at the British Fashion Awards last month – others were less enthusiastic.
Wherever they stand, fashion spectators will be curious to see what the unlikely combination of Margiela, a brand famous for its anonymity, and Galliano, a swaggering rock star of a designer, will look like.
There is plenty to talk about on the official LC:M schedule, too, with the booming menswear pound (the men’s fashion market grew by 18% to £12.9bn between 2008 and 2013, according to Mintel) reflected in a booming calendar of 32 catwalk shows and 37 presentations.
The schedule has been extended to four days, rather than three, with brands such as Coach and Aquascutum Men’s showing for the first time. Other names to watch include design giants Burberry, Alexander McQueen, Paul Smith and Moschino, as well as critics’ favorites Christopher Raeburn and Craig Green.
LC:M’s opening show, Topman Design, is always one of the buzziest, and this season didn’t disappoint. With influences ranging from the Bay City Rollers to motocross, it was about 1970s glamor and rock’n’roll.
Models wore their hair in Rod Stewart-style mullets while the starry front row – Dermot O’Leary, Tinie Tempah, David Gandy, Nick Grimshaw, Andrew Scott (aka Sherlock’s Moriarty) and Douglas Booth – tapped their feet to The Osmonds’ Crazy Horses .
Clothes were cut close and covered in tartan patches, with stand out pieces including double-breasted suits and denim boilersuits. Tight polo necks, worn as layers, and smart little denim jackets looked likely to be commercial hits. Trousers featured kick flares, their shortened hems showing a hint of ankle.
Most of the outerwear was strokeable and gargantuan: there were over-sized shaggy sheepskins in black, navy and brown, a color scheme that continued into fuzzy hooded coats and colorful furs.
Though the Arcadia-owned high street brand is a reliable barometer of what real twenty-somethings will want to wear this time next year, Topman creative director Gordon Richardson said he thought it would “take a long time” until the bulk of men swapped theirs. skinny jeans for flares.
“But the first time we launched skinny jeans at Topman they didn’t take off – that took time – and now they are everywhere.” Flares, he believes, will have their time too, a process the Topman design team is edging on each season. After all, inspiring men to crave the new is the menswear industry’s job.