John Galliano gives MA fashion students a masterclass in creativity at Margiela HQ | System stories

[Music] John you have welcomed system and some very special guests to this space which is your creative inner sanctum at Miss Mella here on plun um this is your Aral workspace where your creative process unfolds and where your ideas come to life we are joined by um eight students ma fashion design from colleges around uh Europe and the UK we're also joined by two people who mean a lot to John um his Muses uh Valentine and Thomas um thank you guys and I think I'm going to start by asking you um what is your relationship

with musers I've been working these guys for some time now and um they've kind of um well not just grown into that role but beyond almost and very much a part of the creative process to a point where I actually rely on them as as well painstaking work I mean I don't know how many kilometers between them they walk or how many times times they dress and undress in a day I don't know no one's ever followed that but it must be hundreds and thousands there's an empathy I think when we're working as well which

is quite rare to find sometimes you can find great people but they're real chatter boxes you know when you're trying to work something out they kind of know when to just keep strum um which is real respectful um but they don't stop speaking with their body so the way that Thomas will reach for a pocket or miss it or not it starts to tell me what's wrong there or just the way Valentine is standing or a position she takes or um so we've developed like a shorthand if you like where I can still concentrate um

and try and find Solutions and then doing so many collections as well I've grown to somewhat rely on them as well I mean there's so many fittings and then you know or your team is taking notes and but then you might come back to that fitting like 3 weeks later cuz it's taken that long to make the adjustments course it something like that it takes time and sometimes I forget so Valentine will remind me oh you did this and you did that remind us all ditto Thomas some of the more complex things the gestural things

that he has kind of given birth to and created um so he he reminds us as well which keeps us on our toes I mean right through to the end of the pro and we do lighting checks with them mood checks walk checks everything we create we do with these two um and then they share all that with the uh eventual casting so when they come in if there's a certain mood or stance or way of walking they'll share that with with the muses that come in which is really fun and voila um John in

the atal 2024 show in January you um created uh this technique called emotional cutting which is what you were describing um before the kind of gestures that you put into pulling up a hem or you know sort of pushing down a pocket or the the unconscious and conscious things that we kind of do to our clothes to um to convey feelings and so on um I would love for you to to tell us and maybe maybe show us um how that happens in in this room while when you're doing it I mean it started off

there's a board over that the second board which is just some of the influences the Stillness and stylized photography of brassai some characters of low life Parisian Society of that time um thinking about whether collection was happening which was um by the sen and under the bridge and it was a nighttime show and there was going to be a full moon so it's quite humid and dank and so different things happen from I was sh me Thomas that you're trying to avoid a you don't want the hems of your trousers to get wet because you're

walking jumping over a puddle to Valentine it's really cold you've been up for two days two nights and you're coming back from the best time of your life or you've been caught unawares so you've come out and you just grabbed what looks like your boyfriend's cardigan so every character you saw in the last of feel that's not styling the clothes are actually cut like that you just simply put a hand in a pocket and that's it you fixed or the cardigan or whatever it is to help tell the stories they're like my kind of you

know silent actors and and and the cloth of the script the emotional cutting like I remember we had you know we had that day where we just spent the whole night sort of you know trying to get into indeed the setting that you just described where you know it's there it's moonlit it's cold you you kind of you know you're sneaking around the S and then you know all these all these you know John just sits there sort of like saying things and there's music usually kind of too loud you kind of can't hear John

anymore and then I do it so I can't hear all the others around me that's that's the thing like because John does his storytelling with clothes it's you know you have a lot of things to help you so you know he he puts a hat on you and squish it down so you can almost you know it blurs your vision and that already helps you and it's just like okay you you're walking in the rain so trying to imagine that moment and at some point you know you really get into it and you forget that

anyone is in the room and you're really in that moment and I think it's the same for Valentine you just kind of grow into those things and before he know it he hasn't stopped I don't know if you've noticed he's given you about seven different gestures just talking kind but there's the thing like John then says okay let's photograph it like this and then it it's like this very tense moment of like oh [ __ ] we have to get to the photo set without moving the pleats that we just made because you know that

is what we're trying to to understand here is like how do you know how does that appear and and how is how does that become real what this world means to Valentine and what this world means to me it's it's it you know it ref it's back you know you live it it's it's really it's a strange thing that that can occur I think be very careful the team you surround yourself with cuz when you get it right that's when the magic can happen indeed Valentine do you want to SC so joh was showing me

some um some photographies and he gave me this C and told me um to wear it in the way that it was called next to it was by night so I just grabbed it and it that way and this is how it came out and then it's literally it's cut like this right John the cardigan was just straight in in in this case it's quite a traditional yeah cardan we wanted to um to keep a realness to it and the finishing which is this pill that makes it look kind of really old the idea that

it had been maybe an ancestral hand me down or belong to her lover and the narrative starts you know why has she appeared by this s completely done up in this coret that this cardigan that's been put on dressed in haste um so again you start to build the narrative um with the elements that could have an effect on the clothes um obviously this card's cardigan has been rained on and and she's loved it to death as she was kind of loving this St at one point as well in the pictures um an old friend

uh loved to death teddy bear or doll your Muses um are sort of choreographed but also very also very much inject themselves into it according to the garments that you create for them yes I work with a guy a movement director called pat pat p um and sometimes for the younger models who haven't done such a show and because it's not on the runway it's you're as close as you are to me and there's a certain parkour to W walk around you have to remember where the photographers of the film the videos you have to

remember there quite a lot of information and and sometimes then especially with a corset and then heels you're really asking a lot of a young Muse um although they did come in for uh corset train train in um which was done in the most professional way we could where we understood um the correct way of breathing where to place your diaphragm and then only to breathe from there up so it was almost like Pilates um and we shared as much information as both Thomas and Valentine on the easiest way to stand while you were put

in the corset on and different timings we'd have like three you know halfway 3/4s and then the full and um of course some of my musics walk like Angels but as I said sometimes it was challenging especially we did a little section was inspired by all the broken dolls and um so together we were working with some Muses that you know that they were great in the heels that was all good and then in the corset separately when you put the Cor and the heel together it just became something that was very alien to them

but we coat them through we COA them through and we actually turned it into a bit of a choreography so they you know they were a little bit wobbly so they'd walk and when they were feeling they were going over we just say well hold that broken pose just hold it Center yourself breathe then take the next four steps and then break again so that feeling that they were going to go over that horrible anxious you know that they could have just Fallen was turned into a shape and I think they pulled it off really

well and this is something that we work out with these guys as well so everyone got round um the circuit um in one piece which was good Thomas got it immediately and just stood there and did this thing this you know shape and I was like what's going on here what's going on he had to a I went check him out what's he doing what's he doing we both like and then he starts this walk this is before we've even created the outfit yeah so we're just grabbing a bit of wool and kind of draping

it around him he won't come out the character he's just standing there like a broken doll staring Us in the eyes we were like what's wrong with him so today we thought that we would turn the tables and give all of you guys the opportunity to ask John galano some of the questions you've wanted to ask him so um I've always really admired your commitment to um un filtered freedom of fantasy so what would you say is key to an uninhibited design process if there is one if there is one um I think you know

the answer don't you CU you wouldn't add if there is one um it's got to be planned you have to plan the time and there are parts that can be uninhibited I mean the research or discovering or going to the theater films trolling through books a trip around a market a a brock on to flea market you know all those things there one should feel completely free I think it's good to have a plan to plan it all and remind yourself of what the objectives are what is it that you really need to get done

through this process but for sure the creative thing is you being within yourself creating your world and no one should mess with that cuz that's really special really special um and really important cuz we all need it we all need it for the future I was wondering uh how do you make sure that you keep evolving in your uh designs and your um Concepts surrounding myself with like-minded people young people as well um getting out there it's important to stay connected with what's going on out there um you may be at the most fabulous art

school or fashion school and that's one part of it's really important but getting out there is even more important than meeting likeminded people graphic artists sculptors painters you know hang with them as well I think they it's very important um so I still like to go out and I still do my little research strips and um and as Anders mentioned we're all to take five to six I think stares um for a year and they're really included in all the process from a to z um and for me that's important they get to see that

and it's just really um interesting to see feel hear how they see and vice versa I think they're quite like some of the old tricks that I know and but um I'm also learning too and I never stop that and um I think that's what can help to keep you relevant and that you have something to say yeah what do you do when you feel stuck with your work or when you start like doubting yourself do you want the good news now you never stop doubting yourself we all have moments of Doubt don't we I

mean I think that's only natural but I think it's how you manage it and channel it it can turn into a positive try and keep notes of things ideas come at strange moments as you know keep notes keep a notebook keep a Sketchbook every day and just keep putting it in there and then you'll fine when that moment comes where you have to put something together that initial seed is already planted your body almost knows it like many artists you know when they first produced their first album and they're like 1819 they have all those

years to p out the agony The Angst the the happiness you know and it flows really fast and then they have to do their second album and they're only 19 or 20 and they haven't had that time of life but the record producers want the next album there's very few that step back and say well you know what I think I need another four or five years to live and we can't do that by see I can but we can but um yeah it's just having having time for yourself I think to replenish it's really

important I wanted to know how do you unite your creative Integrity with commercial uh demands like how do you balance between what you want to create as a designer and what consumers want to see and buy it is a crazy um Tim taing that we have for ready to wear for sure because the dates are retinue Stone you know you have your Market dates and you've that collection has been the showroom at that and show dates and that can't change um but what I find with when I first came to mes Mella that there was

a small collection and it was called artisano which was still a little bit brick Lage but super interesting um but having been brought up in Couture we kind of little by little turned it into that which gave me a little bit more time to define a line develop a technique um a little bit more time um which could be hugely inspirational and beneficial um when translated for the other collections which do have commercial objectives and and yeah to be a success you have to take all those boxes and as you're developing the artisen you can

see some things or you feel just the the energies around you people say oh that's really cool I wish I could have that we take like mental notes and some things whether it's a shape uh a sleeve the way it's been set in or a technique that's evolved we start to drip feed into the ready to wear teams who then as I'm still working on this they're trying to find industrial solutions to some of those techniques so they can be affordable and you know they're clothes that we want to wear all day for um so

that's how I do it you need the emotion you need the heart you need the soul there and then decide well you know decline you to to decline to make it more wearable commercial easier to wear but that only comes when you've got that strong statement I think I think do that help so um painters or sculpts they can create on their own right while fashion designers have to rely on a fashion Community how like as a dress maker how do you retain your own personal vision of fashion while including others in the creative process

I try to include them right at the beginning and and everyone really to bring them into the story and what I'm trying to do and and and then you give them space they come back with more ideas or more research and the same with the itellas you kind of show them a little something you're trying to do and give them space to come back sometimes it's wrong sometimes it's right sometimes it's a surprise and I embrace that it's better than what I had thought of so we kind of build it all together um as we're

going along can you think of a collaboration experience that really stands out to you and how did it challenge and enrich your creative process I can think of many but I think this last collection was very challenging um you know you never stop learning with the buyer's cuts each fabric teaches you something different but then to try and develop the buyer's cut but over a corseted silhouette and altered body shape was really challenging I mean as much as we knew about the buyers and couret both of which I've done before for the two to work

together was there was just no answers we had to work everything out as as we went along I think we all learn a lot which is kind of that's really exciting when you know you come in wanting to do your best at least I do I hope you do too when you go to school that you just want to do your best don't you and then when you have moments like that and you think that you've achieved something or learned something that it's really good for the soul I think it's really good for the S

so um I'd say this one was the most challenging I mean so John in the recent years uh you and M marela has been have been really transparent about the process behind uh collection and I I wanted to know how important isn't to you to to show the behind the scenes and how collection is made I think it's really important to communicate that I started to do it during the pandemic when I was trying to find new ways to communicate and reinforce the ethics of the house what we stood for to explain a little bit

the um the act of creation and and and you how important it was and that these clothes had a soul they weren't just cookie cutting clothes you know they were born out of um love craft tradition um all those things and sometimes it's nice to explain that um don't sound better what you're buying into um it's important my question is what makes the heart of a collection you you know when you start to get obsessed about something that is that is the heart that is the heartbeat that will pull you through the process I think

sometimes I have three or four obsessions before lunchtime you can imagine I encourage it I really do if you were in our place and you got to meet somebody who inspires you who would that be and what would you ask them um I think that would be meline vion and I think I'd ask her all the questions that I couldn't get answers from from from her work that's been photographed beautifully explained um I've even gone to museums where I've had the privilege to be able to handle some of those dresses to learn even more but

I think the one thing I'd say to her I mean I'll share this with you cuz it was like was something that we only discovered this season um and it was thanks to modern technology really so I was obset yeah I've I've done bias before and embroidered bias and we've been quite happy with it but not 100% happy and we was just looking at some of the dresses over anyway through um modern technology and kind of closeup photography we were able to sit around the table with my team and study the way some of the

beading had been applied and put together and there was a bit of a Eureka moment cuz she's never written about this she won't see it anywhere she cuts the cloth from the Ires but she embroiders on the straight of grain [ __ ] you can't read that anyway I'm getting to the end of my my career to discover that it was like wow it's that simple but I mean you see her embroideries there's nothing pulling them it's like liquid Mercurial gorgeous you know so um and it's never you won't read that anywhere I mean you

know and it took you know the people I was working with are like amazing amazing Premier technicians uh Tiana had done the artwor with us and we were all taking it apart and making this thing bigger and and it was like wow that's just like the best cap secret I've just shared with you all but research is so important it was always there can you imagine we were so excited I I can't tell you is there have any artworks or film you a lot in your life so many and I'm so grateful that I'm with

each collection and I'm led to a door and I open that door and I'm introduced to the works of someone I didn't know my team will introduce me or poetry or music or uh films that I hadn't seen I think with each collection I just learn more and more and more death and Venice music Mala just that slowness that real time the way it's filmed and the mist and the colorings and and the story is beautiful as well but that period and the way it's evoked and just the slowness of the story that kind of

brings you in and just exquisite beauty yeah that's it's just a very beautifully sh lit film all the crops are that incredible incredible so I'd say that one if you haven't seen it uh why was it important to for to you to take the time to find new technique techniques to push oneself to put you know to to push ourselves myself as as well um the idea that once you'd created that silhouette through the use of corsetry that anything you did on top was just new MH it had to fit and it would never fit

unless you came back to that waist measurement or hip measurement so that um deru the discipline the uh of old school cure but I hope interpreted in a lighter and more modern way I hope um but still the disciplines were very much there very much there we go online sometimes too to try we need to find a a solution or some you know some little something sometimes we find the answer but then sometimes times it's just like you got to work it out the fabric you know if you listen it will tell you a dialogue

develops and you can't make certain Fabrics or force them to do things they'll tell you how they want to be CAU or draped or have to listen yeah what are your greatest hopes for the future and what are some of your concerns as well I I think my greatest hopes for us I mean for our future is that we continue to to to fly the flag if you like for Couture cuz I think really that's so important that we don't lose that really um it's very important I think to move fashion forward you're working with

volumes and shape and um so I think that's really important that we all never let that die cuz you know there are fewer and fewer curries around aren't there um so hurry up we need you we need you to jump in and um to to never let that go never lose that discipline you know of dress making and understanding how to construct a dress yes had an engineer address the the the scaffolding if you like before you decorate it and build and um we never want to lose that and um supporting that you some of

those embroiderers or you know the the different suppliers that work with us as well we have to keep them busy keep them going and bringing in New Blood very important especially in this world as well where you know one draws conclusions from algorithms and even some creative decisions are made by Al um that's why could sure we have to it's from your heart you know you ask where's the heart I think um they'll never work that out they'll never work that out it's you your emotion your um your [Music] hand that you feel always be

authentic you you won't go wrong I don't think be your authentic true selves uh I think we're all wondering if you could give us a piece of advice for our graduates that are going to enter the fashion industry piece of advice something we should be aware of or and never give up on the dream I mean there's going to be times that are really challenging maybe your graduation show I don't know no but even outside in the real world there's going to be times where you might be disappointed but every time that disappoint you know

you learn something you really learn something that's so you know at the time you you're feeling quite down and disappointed I know a week later you've learned something I don't know with that disappointment comes something that you learn that is inv valuable I think cuz if we didn't have those moments we wouldn't learn anything would we I mean so um yeah it's not nice to have those rebut or or you know a critique that went really badly but I mean it is the only way you learn isn't it I you can take it on board

you can agree or not but I always learned something from those um situations never give up the dream don't listen to anyone keep going you'll get there you have your offers um not far from here which is uh just like stepping into your imaginations it's full of objects and the most beautiful colors and flowers and scents and all these things because objects I know really Inspire your work and the things that you surround yourself with so with that in mind we asked all of you guys to uh bring an object John has not seen them

it's the first time he's seeing them um that inspires you or has inspired some of your work or might inspire you in the future or something that just means a lot to you and I would love to ask you John what immediately catches your eye it's all I mean look this cuz I kind of know what it is who brought this one I ah it's a um Glo de Mar this weding Glo it's part of a French Countryside F culture yeah um and they were passed on from generation to generation it's it's actually a decoration

um that you offer usually the bride so that she can put her crown or bouquet um inside and I just remember seeing my grandmother's and it's it's it deeply inspired my graduate collection from my bachelor right um that's beautiful I me it comes with a lot of other things and sometimes you put them in a globe and they're very special lots of memories and I love the mirror work and which of these items um surprises you the most if you surprises yeah there's some pretty interesting this one who brought this this do we don't have

Coco here right now but John has no she's still in her makeup she might turn up she's getting her hair D yeah I brought the dog okay um it actually belonged to my grandmother it's um one dog of a pair uh it was always on her fireplace two yeah uh yeah I left it at home because I couldn't carry Pop um the history of these dogs is that they were used in bro holes in the past so when the dogs face outwards that means no client is inside and when they face inwards it means that

the room is occupied um and I just really love the the story behind it it being on my grandmother's fireplace and now it's in my house on the fireplace so that's wonderful I look at them every day that's wonderful that history knowledge emotion that can come from an object and I think Z just said I do surround myself with different objects that kind of could be the beginning of a story a collection I wonder how many times you got turned around that one thank you for sharing I'm curious yes what's in those files po what's

can can we openen and one botom name is Venus it's about charming and beauty and another name is be wiing it you can use it when you do meditation or sometimes you need extra support very important scent as well what does it devoke to you John it the a factory um side of things as well when you're creating a story is is really important but these two are the are both new brand new for you as yeah as a gift thank you so much I will lay them the deflated or is it a balloon or

is it a yeah it is is it one day m uh one M diet ballon oh wow and uh strong lungs for that yeah no with the pump uh yeah what interests me is everything that we can extract from an object for example uh for my last year collection was just uh variations on the object of an umbrella and everything you can exract and how you can apply it to a body and this year the one of the St of was the balloon so uh what is draped in a balloon so for example the nut

uh the material the latex so how you learn how to work with it we use a bit of latex always in the collections with a great girl she's based in London comes over is fascinating to work with what is it um actually it's an object that I make myself with uh Garden H that I found in a secondhand store and I was like wow it seems like almost like a red snake you know yeah sometimes I go down to um a department store in the M called the bhv you find stuff like this for the

garden and work plums electrical wire all it's in the basement of the bhv it's worth checking out it's inspiring thank you for sharing and what's this little ceramic it's a craw with three heads I remember I got it from my mom when I was little from a Christmas calendar actually but I feel because I grew up in the countryside and I felt like this is sort of the spirit of a place and I got it as I keep kept it with me as a good luck charm and I brought it to London and whenever I

moved but I remember as a kid I also found it a bit Eerie like I had it hanging on my wall and I was kind of scared of it but at the same time I felt like I can't take it off because it's it's being placed there so it's and the yeah don't lose that then we have umst ah these little bracet these come in these are two in one so they're Chinese knots and you wear them for asici and um when they break uh they're meant to said to have protected you from like a

really grave situation which is why I brought it um I think it's really really fascinating because it's a very commonplace object it's mass produced but it holds um a value which kind of connects you to something a little bit more um spiritual and a little bit Fantastical so I think having those like everyday connections was really interesting RI Jaws yes get us through life finally we have this I got this postcard last summer when I was walking with my mom around so and I was really drawn to it because I feel like it has a

lot of ambiguity in it the the main character is kind of like this person Beyond gender almost and but then there's so many things about the image that are so strange right cuz it feels so archaic but then if you look in one of the corners you'll see there's some like skyscrapers there's a person coming off one of the corners as well yeah so it's very hard to place it in sort of like a time and place specifically I think she he or I mean they're quite peaceful in the corner aren't they yeah it's yeah

it's like um it's like a book with an open ending almost it's like you can really tell um where this is going to go and I think that's that's really exciting well that's very special if you can project yourself in it that's yes you should that's a good one yes well thank you all for bringing those very special objs in they are very inspiring you brought someone too someone I say yes yes I bought auntie I don't if you met her she's over there she's over 100 years old she travels with me everywhere as well

I'm obsessed with her um but it was really her time this season I she kind of like an artist Muse fully art articulated I kind of imagined her being I more panas and some artists Studio striking up some preliminary poses for a draftsman that then could Inspire and so on and so on and so on I mean that's the story but all the textures on a worn away Decay the emotion the time yeah it's important to have those objects I think they come with so much history as well an espr you feel it you're you're

very s sensitive to those energies it's it's why we're drawn to them amazing thank you so much for your generosity John for sharing so much you no thank you it's really nice to spend this morning with you all really in quite a chilled out kind of it's great it's great taking the time out to to speak like to share and and I wish you all the best the best the best the best of everything it's going to be fun stay focused yeah no thank you thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music]