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The culture of John Galliano has always been about manifestation rather than implication. It was an idea that creative director Bill Gaytten had kept in mind for his SS13 effort, which he devoted to the grands messieurs of surrealism, Salvador Dali, René Magritte, Man Ray, and of course André Breton. Famous motifs belonging to all four of them were present in the collection, mainly in the shape of prints like a blue-sky-and-white-cloud one, which paid tribute to Magritte, or a white coat with the slogan ‘We Believe’, echoing the words of Breton in his ‘Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Art’ from 1938, but certainly also in bias cutting and the use of accessories such as a giant red lobster necklace – a nod to Dali, no doubt – and its Magritte-hailing antlers counterparts. The influence of Man Ray was perhaps most focused on the type of garments themselves, so recognisable from the artist’s work: Edwardian jackets, huge lapels in tow, stood out, especially in a shimmery black double-breasted suit. The collection was an exercise in the kind of expression the label was always known for, and the idea that things should never be done by halves. And most of all, it was a grand tribute to the great artists, who paved the way.
Text: Anders Christian Madsen
Photography: Mitchell Sams
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