Gallianos Comeback : The Designer Lets His Work Speak For Himself

After three years out of the limelight John Galliano made his official comeback to Fashion with his Maison Margiela couture show last week.

Presenting his first ready-to-wear collection in a small enclosed room at the Grand Palais on Friday evening, Galliano chose to keep a low profile and refused to appear for a bow at the end of the show (even though the fashion crowd tried to entice him with two rounds of clapping).

Galliano, fell from grace after an anti-Semitic rant in a Paris bistro for which he was fired from Dior in 2011. He then worked briefly at Oscar De La Renta for one season and was named creative director last October when he was hired by businessman Renzo Rosso. The brand which has been in creative decline since Martin Margiela left the house he created in the 1980s, has rebranded itself with the hiring of Galliano.

Known for its tradition of nonspeaking anonymity for its designers and the brand, the marriage of Galliano’s flamboyant romanticism and the conceptual abstraction of the Margiela brand was something that everyone was looking forward to see. Galliano's first demonstration was an haute couture collection which was presented in London earlier this year. Last weeks debut was undoubtedly more Galliano than Margiela with the collection carrying Galliano’s distinctive romantic touches.

Galliano’s return (which was also ironically same day as Christian Dior's show) has already been regarded as a hit with his ready-to-wear debut at Margiela being one of Paris fashion week’s most-talked-about collections. He's produced a lineup of the buyable wear which are sure to make his skeptics disppointed.