From pencil illustrations, to live re-enactments and endless make-up looks, the internet isn’t done with Maison Margiela’s SS24 Artisanal show just yet
It’s been six days since Maison Margiela’s 2024 Artisanal show. Six days since John Galliano and his team shook the world with their Parisian underground fantasy. Though this might seem like an insignificant amount of time by usual standards, in fashion, six days can be a lifetime. This is why the reaction to the show – which is still developing in real time online – feels all the more special. Six days and the industry usually moves on, readying themselves for some other drop or collection or international fashion week – but this time, its attention remains firmly locked on Maison Margiela.
Even the act of writing a follow-up piece to a show that took place close to a week ago is practically unheard of. But, as we saw that night, events such as these do not occur often. As soon as the first model waggled their limbs across the boards under the Pont Alexandre, the internet was enraptured. The porcelain-skin looks concocted by Pat McGrath have been a particular fixation, with MUA’s such as Mei Pang, Erin Parsons and Niko Haagenson attempting to recreate the glassy façades. And if – amongst other things – a James Charles co-sign is the marker of mainstream co-option, then his viral attempt at imitating McGrath’s work means that this moment has broken through to a new kind of audience, one beyond the usual confines of couture.
That’s why, if you head to the Instagram of doll brand Bratz, you’ll see a post dedicated to the make-up, its bug-eyed marionettes enhanced by some mock-McGrath slap (Bratz are of course the OG fashion dolls, and even had a ‘Couture Collection’ back in ‘08, its first dolls made from porcelain, so judging by McGrath’s response she’s a fan?). That’s also why, if you head over to Twitter, you’ll see posts responding to accusations of AI generated looks, or other ones from illustrators showing off their tributes to the work. Ordinarily, a fashion show boasting three whole Kardashians in the flesh might be consumed by the frenzy of their appearance, but even that kind of fame was a footnote to a collection so well executed.
Not content with pencils on a page, others have taken an IRL approach to their Margiela homage. When New York photographer Matt Stejbach was on a ski trip in the Berkshire mountains with friends Josie and Hannah, they carved out time from their schedule to sit down and watch the show. “We all sat in front of the TV and held a proper viewing party because this show was so highly anticipated”, he tells me when we chatted over email. “It was obvious from the start that this would be an historic show.” But it was afterwards, when Josie noticed that Matt’s striped boxers were a dead ringer for Gwendoline Christie’s closing look, that they knew what they had to do. “She ran downstairs to grab her girlfriend’s hand and every coat in the house,” remembers Matt. “She dressed me in tights, a headband and whispered ‘we have to do the Margiela show for everyone downstairs’. Within minutes, we were in quick-couture and pressed play on ‘Hometown Glory,’” he continued, before adding, “we had an audience, control of a speaker, and a dream.”
The three friends then gathered together “a suitcase of ski weekend attire, a candlestick, dried flowers and a pillow” for their own mock presentation. “Josie, the fashionista she is, just went for it,” says Matt. “It started with layering tights over boxers, then upside-down vests and jackets, and a blanket as a makeshift corset. Josie’s rocking a floor-length dress as a scarf and Hannah sold the Paris-by-night fantasy with a bare chest and (unlit) candlestick”. The good fortune of their location also abetted the performance, with the fancy Airbnb backdrop creating a salon-like setting for the show. “We tried to do [movement choreographer] Pat Boguslawski justice,” Matt went on. “The walk he designed is so empowering and we loved tapping into that theatricality… Mr. Galliano, we’re ready to walk the next one!”
In a positive review of the show for The Cut, fashion critic Cathy Horyn described how Galliano’s couture left this season’s shows “in its dust” because “it takes time to do truly moving work, to remind people of the power behind clothes.” Maison Margiela hasn’t shown haute couture since 2022, a fact that many have pointed out since this SS24 collection debuted. It’s these reactions to the show – these countless rehashings and homages – that are the real life manifestations of Horyn’s point. Of course the human response to seeing a beautiful thing is to have it again and again, to have more of it in the world. Horyn ends her review by saying that the show “was a reminder of what a prison the luxury industry has become,” which is true: not everyone has the freedom to create what they want at such a slow pace. But I think, also, what this outpouring of creativity has shown us, is that with the right approach, what fashion can offer us is just a bit of refuge too.