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Ensemble

Design House Maison Margiela French
Designer John Galliano British
Couture Line Artisanal French
spring/summer 2015
Not on view
John Galliano accepted the role of creative director at Maison Margiela in 2014, five years after the retirement of founding designer Martin Margiela. The A-line coat from Galliano's debut Artisanal, or haute couture, collection is made of hand-sewn buckram appliquéd with black cotton lace and coated with black acrylic resin. It is finished with antique cotton calico cuffs, clear plastic patch pockets with deep three-pointed flaps, a bustle of brown shredded silk tulle and lace, black lacquered conch shells, and string of chandelier crystals. Accessorized by nude, padded stockings worn through at the knees, the ensemble - inspired by a threadbare doll that is losing her stuffing - represents Galliano's and Margiela's shared interests in the aesthetics and techniques of deconstruction and bricolage. Galliano's method of layering new and repurposed fabric and objects foregrounds the garment's construction, a process he describes as "ripped to reveal." His skillful use of materials and conflation of references - from the eighteenth-century pocket flaps and sleeve ruffles to the late nineteenth-century bustle - signify the enduring importance of narrative and historicism in his work and recall his earliest designs of the 1980s and years of ingenuity as creative director at Christian Dior.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Ensemble
  • Design House: Maison Margiela (French, founded 1988)
  • Designer: John Galliano (British, born Gibraltar, 1960)
  • Couture Line: Artisanal
  • Date: spring/summer 2015
  • Culture: French
  • Medium: silk, cotton, leather, plastic (cellulose nitrate, polyurethane, polyvinyl chloride), rubber, metal
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Friends of The Costume Institute Gifts, 2015
  • Object Number: 2015.540a–g
  • Curatorial Department: The Costume Institute

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